32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Panthers Set the Coppertone in Game 3

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman delve into an ugly Game 3 loss for the Edmonton Oilers in Sunrise, Florida, as they trail the Panthers 2-1 in the Stanley Cup Final. In the news and notes section of the podcast, the hosts discuss potential rule changes suggested by some NHL players that they'd like to see addressed (16:50). Elliotte talks about Utah, Seattle, and Montreal as the teams most active during the Scouting Combine in Buffalo (23:02). Next, the hosts provide an update on Gavin McKenna's future (30:11). Elliotte comments on the speculation surrounding Alex Pietrangelo and William Karlsson (36:33). The hosts also discuss TJ Oshie as he retires from the NHL (39:12). The Final Thought focuses on the unusual questions that teams ask players during interviews at the combine (44:18).In the final segment, Kyle and Elliotte are joined by a bronzed broadcasting legend and our friend Gene Principe (51:12). 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

I gotta tell you, Kyle, I will never win any other awards in my career, but if I did, I will do a fountain celebration. Okay, mark that, Dom. Or what, 356 days to the next Canadian Screen Award night, so countdown is on. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X. Elliot, Dom, Kyle back with you. And Elliot, you needed a magnifying glass to try to separate the differences between Edmonton and Florida.

The first two games of the Stanley Cup final, not on Monday night. 56 seconds in, future Hall of Famer Brad Marshawn gets the party started for the Panthers. The Oilers were chasing early. It continued the rest of the night and to borrow a line from the great Gordon Bombay as the third period carried on. This isn't a hockey game. It's a circus, a clowning at the hands of the defending champs. Six to one.

And the Panthers take a 2-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup final. Kyle, I think a lot of the discourse out of this game will be noise. Stuff that really doesn't matter in the big picture. Things that I don't think are really important in the big picture. The fact that the Oilers lost fights, that they tried to take a piece out of the Panthers. Like none of that stuff in the third period bothers me it doesn't bother me at all because that's what Florida does when they're losing they try to take a piece out of

you to me that is all immaterial what is important to me is what happened in the first 25 minutes. Edmonton lost the game in the first 25 minutes. That is the big storyline. That is what the Oilers have to look at and put under the microscope from this game. That is what really matters and that's what they have to fix. I bet you if you ask the Panthers, they tell you they would like to drop the puck today, play game four tonight and take us all off the beach in Florida and bring us back into the arena. The two

days off and I hate two days off in the same city in the cup final cannot stand it. But the two days off I think is better for Edmonton because it's a reset. They just suffered their worst loss of this year's playoffs, a complete butt kicking in a big game by the Florida Panthers. They, as you said, they were behind in the first minute. They have allowed Florida to set the tone and the tempo too much in the Stanley Cup final. They haven't led very much at all, which allows the Panthers to play more of the game they like to play, suffocating, stingy, dictating the tempo, dictating what's going to happen out of there. And they looked frustrated. I'm not talking about penalty frustrated. I'm not talking about penalty frustrated.

I'm talking about, you know, McDavid had a drop pass that didn't work and he was shaking his head. They had power, like people were complaining about the Panthers getting 11 power plays. Edmonton had power play opportunities in the first period. They didn't score. And then when they finally got one early in the second,

they gave one back two minutes later, 80 seconds later. They didn't even stay within a goal for two minutes. In the first period, they committed three offensive zone penalties and a too many men. A lot of their plays were guys trying to beat Florida one-on-one. Twice in the overtime at the first game, Edmonton beat the Panthers at Florida's blue line with one on one moves and had breakaways. That's rare. Like it happened that night, but it's rare. Generally, you are not coming down the ice one on three or one on two against the Florida Panthers. So to me, they all have, they have to go back to the drawing board. They have to say, okay, this is why our power play is drying up.

This is why our five on five plays drying up. You know, McDavid now in five Stanley cup final games in Florida, and this isn't a criticism of his, it's a fact with Barkov and Forsling on the ice, five on five, they're not giving him anything. And what helps is that Ekblad, who is Forsling's regular partner, is playing his best hockey of his life. I think he's got one five on five point in the five games in Florida during the last two Stanley Cup finals.

He needs help. You know, as great as he is, like he's been hit hard this series. He got hit hard once in this game and went to the room with the equipment guy. He got clobbered on the power play in game number two, which you never see. Like Florida has set up the layers and they're disciplined to stick to it. You know, where's the help from the depth lines that, you know that they've gotten so much more of in the past? That to me, we can talk about the fights and the penalties and whatever. To me, that is so, so, so far. If Anthony Stewart was here, it's not even secondary, it's tertiary, Kyle. Like that stuff doesn't matter.

What matters is what happened in the first 23 minutes that they basically lost this game. That's the important stuff they have to fix, not the fighting and the losing the fights. That was all frustration. They knew the game was over at that point. You have to fix what got you into that position in the first place. All the things that went wrong earlier that allowed the game to devolve into that. That's where you lost. That's what you have to fix because you got to be 2-2 after Thursday. Right. And 140 penalty minutes total in this one. As you say, a lot of it were just the

empty calorie ones that will only be nothing more than water cooler fodder to help fill the time over the two off days before game number four. But it's the third straight game, Elliot, where it's been penalty crazy in the first period. Yeah. Right out of the gate. And it's some of the ticky stack. So I don't know if it's again, in the mindset of the officials, you call one and suddenly now it's like, your mind's going, well, if we call that, then the next one's got to be, is you try to establish a standard early. But boy, it's really led to now, I know both teams deal with it, but it's certainly played a role in just trying to find a bit of a flow here early on in each of these games so far.

And then it kind of disappears a bit later after that. You're right, Kyle. Here's the thing. I always strive for consistency, right? What is one penalty they are consistently calling in these playoffs? High sticking. You get a stick in the face and someone's face, you're getting a penalty. And he took one in game two and the others took a couple in game three. Like if you get

a stick in someone's face, you're getting a penalty. That's consistent. They started to call goaltender interference a bit more consistently, which was the opposite of the way that they did the goal in game one But Bobrowski dove on the one like I have no problem with them giving Arvids enough penalty if they want to protect the goalies But that's a dive and everybody listens this podcast knows how much I hate embellishment and what a big problem it is And then could Chuck ran into Skinner and didn't get a penalty and Skinner was mad about that. I'll tell you which one, of all the penalties in this game, the one that would have driven me crazy, craziest if I was the Oilers was the too many men call. And not because it wasn't too many

men, it was, it's because Florida got away with one in overtime in game two when Echblad got hurt. So you're sitting there. Someone said to me there were like eight guys on the ice. Like it was crazy. But you know, you're just mad because Florida didn't get one three nights ago. So I don't know. I mean, look, could the games be officiated better? Always, always, always. I hate diving. It makes me crazy. You can't high stick anyone.

But again, Edmonton lost this game. They lost this game because they let Florida score early their power play went numb. They gave up the goal right after but Broski made saves when Skinner didn't and Florida just choked the life out of them five on five just stifled them like they stifled everyone else. That's why Edmonton lost this game not because of temper tantrums later. That's just silliness. But it was a interesting bounce back performance for Aaron Ekblad who the days before was asked about the curl and drag that McDavid pulled on him in game two and his credit he answered the question said yeah you know you're trying

to wait for the shot block you're trying to take away the pass and then the walk on water toe drag McJesus all of that and what does he do he was the one that laid the big licking on McDavid in game number three scored the goal in the third period I mean the game was effectively out of hands already at that point but really was after he found the back of the net on the power play after a beautiful sequence of passing leading up to that point. As these playoffs have gone on, I mean, the Panthers are among the best at once they sink their teeth India and say, this is how we're playing tonight.

It is really difficult to change the course of the evening once that happens. But when you look at how Toronto forced them to a seventh game, and I guess to a lesser extent, how even Carolina avoided a sweep and looked to be close to pushing it, maybe even to a sixth game, it was either you put Florida on their heels early or You stay patient and Edmonton wasn't able to do either here in game number three And I guess with those big check marks not there for the oil It starts to make a little bit of sense why the score ended up being what it was or at least the result Ended up being what it was bad time to play your worst game of the playoffs But you know, I always say this, Kyle, and this is another thing

you've heard me say on this podcast. If you're a good team, momentum doesn't have to carry over. It doesn't. And Edmonton is a good team. The this is not a Stanley Cup final is not total goals. It's two to one. And there's another game on Thursday night that you have to win. You know, I'll say one thing about McDavid and I kind of got this impression from him post game. Overall,

as bad as this game was for the Oilers, overall, he's noticeably calmer at the start of this series as opposed to the start of the one a year ago, I still think that's good for Edmonton. He's got to keep that calmness and he's got to get more from everybody else around him. I think Edmonton came back last year when they stopped feeling the pressure and stopped squeezing the sticks and just said let's be calm. Like we have to be when we're at our best and feeling the pressure and stop squeezing the sticks and just said, let's be calm. Like we have to be when we're at our best and let's play hockey. And they got back into the series as stressful as this was, they have to be calm.

They have to clear their minds. They have to be Zen. They have to hit Nirvana and their meditation over the next 48 hours. You can't come in frustrated against these guys. You won't win. You've got to have a plan. And no matter what happens, you got to stick to the plan. And one thing these guys have to do is they have to get a lead and they have to keep it for a while. That's one thing they really haven't done a lot of in this series. So true, so true. OK.

One element of the silliness I did want to bring up was Jake Wallman and the water bottle after his glove was deposited in the Florida bench. Only because you had a I'll give you credit. You had a great line about if Brian Boucher, who was between the benches for TNT on Monday night, if his shower in the presidential suite at his hotel wasn't working, then he at least got a bit of a rinse-off there during that exchange. Stick taps to you, my friend.

The whole thing was funny. Wallman has really been a presence, and you got a sense that those Panther guys really wanted a piece out of him. Like he's one of the few others that has really gotten on their nerves, probably for the taunt of Noshek on the penalty in game one. There are plenty of examples of players who've been fined for that water bottle squirting from the bench, right? Jamie Ben was a recent guy it happened to, for example. So Jamie Ben was a recent guy it happened to, for example. So I wonder if Wallman gets the slap on the wrist fine on one of these days off. Maybe he thought Boucher or Greer or whoever it was looked a little bit overheated. Just trying to cool them off.

Boucher at one point is like, all right, I'm knocking off. Come on. The look he was giving him was hilarious. It was so good. Fuchsia wanted to fight Wallman too. Yeah, exactly. So Chris Knobloch said post game, no decision yet on who starts game four. Who are you starting? Yeah, I'm going back to Skinner here in this case. And not just because he was kind enough

to give us an interview before the final started. But I think, yeah, and listening to him post game. I thought Pickard was pretty good. Sure. The more I watched Pickard, the more I thought about it, but I would go back to Skinner. Like you know what you're getting, for sure. You know what you're getting in Pickard. The guy battles his rear end off anytime he's in there and he's had a hand in the oilers being where they're at right now. But I thought the way Skinner handled his media post game, as he's always done,

wasn't running from anything, I think that'll play a role in allowing himself to reset before along with everybody else. And he's your guy. He's your guy. And I'm sure there's a couple he's looking at going, I wish I would have done this a little differently. But this was not a case of, boy, the Oilers get one or two more saves. It's a different outcome.

They were just outclassed in far more areas than that here in game number three. One other thing I wanted to mention from this game, some Oilers fans didn't Send me some angry DMS because I praised the play by Barkov That took Klingberg into the official and I can understand why Klingberg was upset You never want that to happen, especially when seconds later the puck is in your net and it's a massive goal but I had a player specifically reach out to me to say that Barkov deserves praise because he knew exactly what he was doing. He used the boards and the official to trap Klingberg. It's like a basketball trap where you not only do you offend the

player with the ball, but you try to trap them in the corner so that the baseline and the sideline become added defenders. He said that Barkov knew exactly what he was doing when he did that. And he said that that's why he's winning the Selke every year because he knew exactly what he was doing and he used the official to help make that turnover on Klingberg. Interesting. And one other thing here, I just I don't know if you had anything further to add on the Ryan Nugent Hopkins situation. Obviously, it was a game time decision he played over 15 and a half minutes. I know the third period was what it was. Also, he didn't take any faceoffs in Game 3. He had been taking some draws the first two games and of course, early on in the playoffs.

It's good that you pointed that out and thanks for reminding me. He went on the ice at the end of the morning skate and you could tell he was playing the puck a bit daintily, right? This is clearly some sort of hand wrist thing. So along with two days off likely benefiting the Oilers to reset, very much so for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as he continues to battle his way through. Okay, Elliot, every now and then on this podcast, as you know, some quirky, outlandish, sometimes, sometimes thoughtful suggestions for rule changes, maybe for the sport at the NHL level come across the desk? This time, not from us though,

it sounds like some players that have been following along throughout the playoffs and particularly the Stanley Cup final have some ideas about some changes that could be made to the game flow. Yes, Kevin B actually came up to me after game two and he said there were some players who made some suggestions to the pot for the podcast about rules changes that they would like to consider or discussed after watching Game Two of the Stanley Cup Finals. And the first one was if there if you ice the puck five times in one period after that delay of game penalty, the players felt there were too many icings in game two. Thoughts? Wow.

So now it's like not being able to change is not enough of a punishment. Players are too fit now for that to be a punishment that needs to go a step further. Is what we're getting at. I don't mind that one. I actually like the second one better. So here it is. This was the player's suggestion. Now, by the way, I would just like to say to Ron Hainsey from the Players Association,

if he thinks the podcast has a stupid idea, he will text me and say, you are an idiot. If you don't like these ones, Ron, it's the players, not me. This is it. The players suggested, and I like this one, that if you're playing defense in the D zone and your stick breaks and your team ices the puck, you should not be allowed to go to the bench and get a new stick.

When play resumes, you should still be without one and you shouldn't be able to go back and get a new stick unless it's in the true flow of the game, not an icing. Wow. I actually really like it. I really like it. It feels, I mean, it's, it's a little barbaric, but the more I let it sink in, that could be kind of fun. So now I'm just picturing obviously, I like barbaric. I'm pro barbarian. Right. Well, that's the area you grew up in. But so now I'm picturing like a centerman with their stick broken.

Now obviously you could have a winger take the draw, but maybe there's a time where it's still the centerman and just goes full on hit stick right off the face off, goes right through the opposing centerman. Completely negates the fight. Well, I would like to see that. I think if you don't have a stick, you can't take the face off. Let's just add that in. Well, hold on. Up until this rule suggestion, everyone had a stick to begin a face off.

So I think you've got to, once you open the Pandora's box, I think you've got to be open to this. It, well, I like the idea of making icings more consequential. I do too. of making icings more consequential. You do see moments now where guys have been out the long change, extended shifts and an icing happens and you're like, oh boy, and the top guys come over the boards and there's been moments where, you know, critical parts of the game have all stemmed from that. But yeah, five times because then, you know, you keep the running count and you're like, oh, they're at four. Right. It's like at the NBA, if a guy racks up fouls early, it's like, oh,

already his fourth foul. Yup. We're early in the third quarter. What does that mean? Suddenly now there's a heightened awareness around that. Well, nobody ever fouls out in the NBA. So you never have to worry about that. I guess you're right.

Not anymore. I, I, yeah, that that's that's not too bad. I never would have thought of that, the broken stick. Me neither, me neither. I thought it was really unique. I like the idea. I wanted to shout it out because I like the idea. It's creative. Right, and where it's coming from. And from a player, yes. I know you're a big fan of the jailbreak because you saw it in one of the, I think that's a great rule idea, but you saw it in one of the games of the PWHL this year. I love that idea. Like being in the building when that happens is really cool because you've got the celebration of the goal. And then you see, you know, if it's the home team that scores,

the crowd gets to see their player release from the penalty box and come across and join the celebration. It's like double the joy. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with what we're discussing, the jailbreak is when if you score a shorthanded goal, you terminate the penalty against you. And I think that's a great, great rule for a minor, major something else. But for a minor, yes. Here we are breaking down the news and solving all of hockey's problems in one podcast. Two for one special for all of the listeners and the league. Yeah. You've seen the two in one shampoo and conditioner. I raise you news and problem solving in one podcast.

Especially again, going back to the fact that it comes from, because it's one thing for us to sit here and be like, well, they could do this. We should change that rule. But for those that actually have to live it, that have to deal with these changes or go on, no, it's something we would like to see. That is, that's really something. Love it. When is the next competition committee meeting? That's a good question. I'll have to ask that. May take a while for it to show up on the agenda there, but it's good to talk about.

Really. I know I'll get a text one way or the other. It'll either be somehow it'll still be your fault. You're stupid or you and the players are stupid. Yeah. Yeah. You're stupid for not thinking it's stupid. Stupid. That's right. Okay. We had talked to just over a week ago, heading into the combine in Buffalo Elliot that, Ooh, the winds were circling in a way that it could be a very, very interesting week in terms of conversations and a lot of noise out of Buffalo.

So we talked about the Sabres being active, the Rangers were another team. As the dust settles and everyone left the Combine there over the weekend, What other teams are you hearing that could be among the more active between now and leading right into free agency next month? Well, first of all, on Buffalo, I had some Sabres fans who sent me notes and say, can you just explain what you're talking about with JJ Peturka? Um, you know, do you think Buffalo won't trade him? And I said, that's not what I believe. What I believe is that it Buffalo does not want to trade him.

Now, who knows where this will go, but the Sabres have made it very clear that's not what they want to do. So I figured I would explain that a little bit more. Is Managing the Rangers. OK, I wanted to add a few more teams here. We've talked about how Utah is expected to be active this off season. I heard that the. Mammoth are discussing some stuff

and some stuff that might not necessarily be considered small We'll see if it happens. We'll see if it's real But they are Definitely active. I think there's the pressures on there. They they want to have a big big season and so I think I think Utah's in the middle of a lot of things. It's interesting, there's a lot of talk about offer sheets and after Holloway and Broberg last year. And people are talking about guys like Paterka

and the bigger names are always the sexier names. But I've had a few teams tell me that what more people are wondering about are kind of the Holloway and Broberg types. Like Joel Hofer is a name that gets mentioned a little bit out of St. Louis and that makes sense. I understand that one. But I'll tell you another one that got mentioned to me. And also I think it's a pretty sharp idea. I don't know if it'll happen. But Utah has Jack McBain. And, you know, McBain's a center and he's a bigger guy. He's 25 years old. He's six foot four center. You know, teams are always looking

for those kinds of players. Big centers are hard to find. And I think the Mammoth really like them. And I think they're trying to sign them. But that's a name that a couple of people were telling me when we were talking about offer sheets, who's an under the radar type that could get one. McBain was a name I heard quite a bit actually. Low key, I heard another team, Seattle. I think Seattle is really eager to take a step this year. They have a lot of cap room, they have a lot of draft picks, to take a step this year. They have a lot of cap room, they have a lot of draft picks, they have a lot of flexibility. I don't know how Jason Botterill feels about offer sheets or Ron Francis feels about offer sheets, but it was pointed out to me that Seattle has a flexibility to go down that

route if they wanted to. So that's another team people are watching. Montreal and forwards. I know there's a lot of talk about the Montreal D. I know Nick Hague's been linked to them and I could see it, absolutely. But I've heard a little bit about upgrading it forward too. So Montreal is another team that I've heard a little bit about upgrading it forward too. So Montreal is another team that I've heard with that specifically. And I think some of that focus could be on, you know, who do they envision playing with Demidov for a while? Is there somebody out there that they would look at and say, those are two people that

could grow together a little bit. So that's kind of what I'm looking forward for Montreal. Now we're going to talk a little bit more about the combine for the final thought, like some of the questions that were asked. But those were some of the teams I heard a lot more of coming out of there. Mammoth, Kraken, Canadians at forward, and we'll see where we go. I guess with Montreal, when they got into the playoffs, the first round against Washington, maybe a little bit unexpected with how productive, how much production they got out of Dvorak and Anderson and Brendan Gallagher, which was great to kind of help balance out their

lineup. But I suppose you're right, long-term, that's not likely to be an option for them. So trying to seek ways to improve them in that part of their lineup as they project out two to three and even beyond years there makes a lot of sense from Montreal's perspective. Because at the top, you think they're in a really good spot. They're fine. Signed Jake Evans, going to be great, lower in the lineup and killing penalties for you. Right in the middle there, I could see being a huge priority for them. Like Dvorak is a free agent, right? So you're looking at, just like everybody else, you're looking for a 2C, but not only that, you're looking for a 2C to play with Demidov. Like in the playoffs last year, Dvorak, Anderson and Gallagher was your second line deservedly,

but ultimately you see Demidov as that guy with someone else. By the way, Kyle, we've also talked about how this was the one meeting, or sort of get together for everyone, since they won't be at the draft. I had a team that brought up to me, and I forgot about this. There's another one coming up. It's not as big,

but it got a lot of attendance last year. And there's an agent, Dan Milstein, who brings all of his clients, draft-eligible clients, down to Florida. And he did it last year, and he's doing it again this year, from June 20th to 23rd and it sounds like almost everyone is going. You know Calgary last year, one of their top prospects is Matt Vey Griden who they took

in the first round. They went and took a long look at him at this camp last year. That's not what tipped the scales or anything like that that made them take him, but they really liked him and that was another place where they got a chance to see him. We were talking on our pod that that was the one get together. Like I said, I had a couple of teams reach out and say, there'll be a lot of teams at this one too, because it's a place say there'll be a lot of teams at this one, too Because it's a place where you can see a lot of prospects and the teams last year felt it was valuable All right last pod we talked about Gavin McKenna a little bit Elliot and it's kind of been an ongoing

conversation throughout the year because of how brilliant he's been and you can only imagine how in demand he would be if He was to choose to go the NCAA route next season, not draft eligible until 2026. You got some interesting feedback after our last pod or just some comments anyways about where he could be going and just the intrigue around the player in general. I just wanted to say like there's some things that, you know, there's some times it's hard to realize because social media is the mob now, nobody controls the mob, right? It's hard to predict sometimes.

Like there are times I say, oh, I'm going to drop this on the pod. I'm going to write this in my notes and it's going to be massive and nobody cares. And I'm like, boy, was I totally wrong about that. And there's other times where I drop things on the potter and the notes and nobody's going to care about this. And all of a sudden it's a gigantic fiasco with four million impressions. And I said, wow, like I didn't think that was going to be a thing at all. So you have to be prepared for anything.

You know, I have to say the the mechanic stuff and the reaction to it. It's a big deal. And maybe I kind of knew that already. But the amount of feedback I got on it was massive. This is big news where he's going to play next year. And again, because I'm not watching Was massive like this is big news where he's going to play next year and again Because I'm not watching the juniors or the NCAA as much as I'm watching the NHL. Maybe I didn't

Take it seriously enough, I don't know but The where this kid's gonna play next season there's a lot of interest in that, a ton of interest in that. And, you know, as I said on the pod, I asked a bunch of people and the name they came up to was Penn State. But I think and we'll see if that turns out to be true or that turns out to be incorrect. But Kyle, the thing that really stood out to me was how many of people wanted to talk to me more about, you know, what didn't you report? How much more do you know? That was-

But yeah, what's really going on. What's really going on. And to be honest, there, like people, and Kyle and Dom know this, I'm not that deep. Like I'm very superficial. So there's not much more to me, really. But it was really fascinating. Sometimes when you're not in that sphere, because there are some people in, for example, Sam Cosentino and Jason Bucullo from our place who are really in that

sphere, along with some, there's Scott Wheeler, there's Corey Prum, and there's Cam Robinson. There's a whole bunch of people out there who really do prospects. I obviously don't. So they probably would say, you should have known what the reaction would be, but I was surprised and I was impressed at how many people cared about that

Yeah It does make a lot of sense Average over two points per game in the regular season over two points in the playoffs Six points and four games at the Memorial Cup. I mean nearly nearly Help lug the Tigers to the Memorial Cup championship before falling to London in the final for a guy that again is still one year away from from being eligible to be taken. Like you think about all the brilliant things that Connor McDavid accomplished in the Ontario Hockey League, that part of his life and career. And what Gavin McKenna is doing is, you know, Sidney Crosby too for that matter.

But what Gavin McKenna is doing is just something really, really impressive there. Dallas, Elliot, the coaching search that we talked about, another name we should consider? Yes, Kyle. So Texas lost to Abbotsford in the Western Conference Final of the AHL playoffs. So it's Abbotsford against Charlotte for the Calder Cup.

And Dallas is going to have a big decision to make. We talked a little bit about Neil Graham, last pod, their coach with the Texas Stars. Dallas is going to have a decision to make here about whether or not he's ready now or what do they do with him now, keep him behind the bench in Texas, promote him to the big team. What do they do?

I think there's a realization there that they may lose him if he's not the guy. But another name that was mentioned to me is another current member of their staff in the NHL and that is is Alan Nazradin. They said that he will be interviewed if he hasn't been interviewed already. I don't know the answer to this, but it was suspected by a couple of people that Nazradin may have interviewed elsewhere this year. But the feeling there is, and may have interviewed elsewhere this year,

I do think potentially some other teams in the aftermath of DeBoer being fired reached out to Dallas to ask what Nazreddin's situation is. And I think for now, they're telling people he's part of our search. So and it also fits, you know, Nazradin, who's been around a long time, was interim in New Jersey during a coaching change before Lindy Ruff was hired. So he has a tiny bit of experience as a head coach, although those are always very difficult situations.

But we mentioned that do not be surprised if Dallas goes different or fresh. And I had a couple of people say to me, you should add Nazreddin to your list, that it's not impossible he ends up the next head coach of the Stars. Yeah, makes a lot of sense, especially with Nilsay and they're looking externally and internally

as they now begin a search as you say that a few weeks back they didn't anticipate they would be embarking on. All right, so Elliott, last pod, we talked about the Vegas Golden Knights, Alex Petrangelo, what his future could look like health-wise and when we may, if we may see him in uniform for the Golden Knights next year and now rumors out there with William Carlson potentially being out there on the trade block. What do you hear in, in that regard? Yeah. So, um, again, like I always want to stress this, as many of you follow

hockey, especially on social media, there's a lot of crazy stuff flying around at this time of year. And sometimes even for us who deal in it, it's hard to separate fact from fiction. And so I'm not interested in fighting anyone that's got William Carlson's name out there. To be honest, I don't know really where it came from. I will, all I'm going to say is that I got pushback from teams about Carlson now I haven't spoken to Vegas directly and it's always possible and I stress this always

Possible that Vegas may be talking to one or two specific teams About him that I haven't found but I, I asked a few people about Carlson and either they told me they're not under the impression he's available or I suspect in at least one or two cases, they asked and were told no. They didn't come right out and say it, but the kind of way they talked about it made me feel it that way. They didn't come right out and say it, but the kind of way they talked about it made

me feel it that way. So again, like I don't think it's impossible. There might only be 10 or 15 guys in this league that are completely untouchable, but I asked around about Carlson and just the people I speak to, they told me they had either no indication Vegas was willing to do it or had been specifically told Vegas wasn't doing it. So if Carlson's available, and I stress if, it's a situation out there that I haven't found yet. I know they really liked the player because there was a time a while ago I heard something and

I checked in on it and I was told that they really liked the player. So you so again I'm not saying it's impossible but you'd have to show me what the situation would be. Yeah, well two years left on his deal and AAV under six so you could see why other teams would be calling and saying hey what are you thinking there is there any chance? He's still a heck of a player like he is sure a really good player. All right speaking of a heck of a player TJ Oshie certainly was one for a long time whether it was in a St. Louis Blues uniform, Washington Capitals uniform, 1, 1010 regular season games in all over the course of his career. He announced his retirement on Monday, Stanley Cup champion in 2018, the brilliant

shootout performance at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. For myself, a player I would have covered a little more towards the back half of his career mainly as a Washington capital Elliott But always a joy to deal with because you got an honest answer out of him and was just a pleasant interaction Your thoughts on the career of TJ Hoshi Well, it's just a great player to deal with I Interviewed him actually right after that shootout in Sochi and he was a great interview I asked him to explain the move and he broke it down for me actually right after that shootout in Sochi. And he was a great interview. I asked him to explain the move and he broke it down for me.

You know, really easy guy to deal with, friendly from a media point of view, and obviously turned into a heck of a player and a key piece of a Stanley Cup champion. You know, you remember like, Oshie had a couple of like, like he reminds me a lot of a lot of people like early in his career, like as a young guy, you know, there was, there were some discipline issues he had to deal with here and there to figure out. And you know, sometimes the NHL and success, it comes so fast for you that you have to

kind of figure it like nobody's path is ever a hundred percent linear, right? Like there's always things that threaten to derail you and to Oshie's credit, he figured it out and he gave his body to the sport. He dragged himself over a thousand games when clearly he was, you know, battling to get there at times. He's somebody who clearly loved the game. I always remember his interview with Scott Oak

when they won the Stanley Cup, and Oak asked him about his dad, and he's like, oh, you're gonna make me cry here. But Guy was a true success story, a highly touted prospect who made it, played a thousand games, won a Stanley Cup, did well financially. Like, that's a career that a lot of people would kill to have.

And he was always friendly to deal with. You know, his company, which is Waro, does a lot of the protective gear now, the cut resistance stuff. So he will continue to be in and around the game. Just again, like what about that guy's career now that it's over, is anybody going to quibble with? He won everywhere, on the ice, off the ice, great career. I got nothing else to say. Respect TJ Oshie.

Big time respect, Elliot. Big time respect. Anyone that can be part of the fountain celebrations as Oshie was front and center in 2018, all part of a career that who wouldn't want to get a piece of that. So congratulations to him on a heck of a run. I gotta tell you, Kyle, I will never win any other awards in my career, but if I did, I will do a fountain celebration. Oh, okay.

Mark that Tom or what? 356 days till the next, uh, Canadian screen award night. So countdown is on. Yeah. I don't, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Okay. One other thing before we get to the final thought here, Elliot,

congratulations to the Travier Lions who captured the 2025 Kelly Cup Championship, four to one series victory over the Toledo Walleye. Their goaltender, Luke Cavillan, won the MVP of the playoffs. Elliot, 20 postseason appearances allowed two goals or less in 17 of the 20 outings. He was incredible, gave up three goals in the opener. The loss of the final Toledo won three one, gave up one goal

in each of the ensuing four en route to a championship and an MVP. Yeah, and he's a free agent after this season. He's on a two-way AHL-ECHL deal. And Kavalan's performance, I heard teams have been calling. And I don't know that he's NHL ready yet. He's 24 years old. He's only played 12 AHL games since he turned pro in 2022. He played for the Flint Firebirds before that. He's played mostly in the ECHL with Newfoundland and Laval. He's played nine games

for the Marlies two years ago, and he played three games for Laval this past season. But after a run like that, pretty impressive, very successful. Congratulations to the young man from Greeley, Ontario. And I do think there are some teams looking at giving him, at the very least, an AHL shot next year. And maybe he gets a two-way AHL-NHL deal out of this. That brings us to the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC, Elliot. And you teased it a little bit earlier on when we were discussing the draft combine, the draft interviews, the team runs with players as they make their way through the week.

And inevitably every year, there are some interesting questions that surface that are asked behind those closed doors to try to put the players on the spot. They are so well trained nowadays, just to get them thinking a little bit differently and to try to throw a bit of a curveball in there, here and there. How about the one, the Montreal one was great about being on an island and the water bottle and the bat. Montreal, they asked some hilarious questions. Something I'm going to ask, who's responsible for coming up with these questions? Yeah, what does the brainstorm session look like? How do you shortlist the questions?

Like, is there someone whose job is, you are the question guy. You're the physical testing guy. You're the scout. You're the question guy. Kyle, what I would like to know is if there was any player who would have said, well, I would have taken the bat first anyway. Oh yeah, that's right. Because that's the kind of unique thinking that the Canadians would sit there and wonder,

what is this guy thinking? I would want to turn the tables on the team. Oh, that's okay. I would have taken the bat first. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. That was a great answer by Denway. I would have taken the bat and hit a home run. I wish I hope that if I was in that situation, I would have thought of that. But the one that really I wanted to ask you guys was. So Ottawa impromptu said, tell us a joke. So here's my question to both you and Dom. If you were put on the spot like that, could you do it? Yeah. You want me to go first?

I'll go first because I threw out the question. Okay. All right. So I would say that up to a couple of weeks ago, I might have been caught flat-footed because you have to think for a second, are you going to be telling a joke that in any way offends anybody, right? So I could see, especially in this day and age, a lot of people stopping in their tracks. But I went out to dinner with some buddies the other day, and a couple of them are single again.

And this one came up that I think is a fantastic joke. OK? OK. A 60-year-old millionaire got married to a 20-year-old model. When his friends asked him how he did it, he said, I lied about my age. So they said to him, oh, so you told her you were 40. He answered, Oh, I mean horrible but good.

I like that one. Come on, that's funny. That is good. Well done. All right, what do you got? Could you do it? Yeah, it would take me a minute because I would be thrown from the question to begin with, but you know, there's always those moments in your life that you don't think were much at the time and then stuff just sticks with you years later. I remember in elementary school,

one time we had a substitute teacher fill in for the day and clearly, I mean the poor man's just in, you know, past the time mode, right? Like how couldn't we get the clock to the bell, right? Cause I think it was kind of a last minute deal. And he told this joke and it was, I mean, it's fairly quick and to the point, but he said, you know, an old man is driving home from an appointment

and his wife calls him on the way home and says, you better be careful driving on your way home. I just turned on the news and there's a nutcase driving the wrong way on the highway. And the man says, honey, there's not just one, there's hundreds. That's good, Kyle. That's really good. And all these years later, it's still, yeah, still there in the mind. All right, Tom, what do you got? Those are good guys. Those are really good. And all these years later, it's still, yep, still there in the mind. All right, Tom, what do you got?

Those are good, guys. Those are really good. Anytime. Could you have done it? First of all? Yeah, absolutely. I whenever someone asked me for a joke, I always have this one on hand. Because I don't know why I heard it one time. It's always stuck with me. But there's a man drowning in a lake and as he's drowning help arrives and first a boat comes to, you know, a lifeguard comes to say, hey, here's a life vest jump in the boat will save you.

And the man says, no, no, no, God will save me. So they leave. Next, another boat comes by and they ask him, sir, please let us save you. He goes, no, no, no, God will save me. Third, a helicopter flies in, throws a rope down and says, sir, hold on to the rope, we'll save you. He says, no, no, no, God will save me. So the man drowns. He's in heaven and he sees God and he asks God, he says, God, why didn't you save me? And God looks at the man and says, you fool, I sent you two boats and a helicopter. I like that. So if you're ever stuck with needing to tell a joke, there's three for you to pick one don't say we never

do anything for our listeners we are here to serve you that's good that's good file that away as in a break glass in case of emergency situation that's. I'm glad we did that. That was good. Good segment. About time we had one this year. It only took to midway through the Stanley Cup final. Game three of the Cup final podcast. We finally had a good segment. Yeah. I think the plaque presentation will be on June 25th or so. All right. That was the final thought brought to you by GMC. We'll take our first break and wrap this thing up. 32 Thoughts, the podcast continues on the other side. All right, Elliot, as we wrap up here, as we mentioned early on, two days off, await

us here between the end of game three and game four on Thursday night in South Florida. So my first question is, how are you going to kill the time? Question number two is, is there any chance you borrow from the Jean Principe tanning program that was on full display ringside at Amherst Bank Arena on Monday night? So before we get to Gino, yes, I do plan on spending a little bit of time in the sun. I've been trying to write a 32 Thoughts blog for about six weeks, and I really do want to attempt to get it done over the next two days.

But first I want to shout out Chris Jastremski from TNT Sports, one of their great stats people. He said hello to Amber here while we were at the practice on Sunday the day before game three. And he said, I know who the anonymous caller is. And Amber says, who is it? And Chris looks at him and goes, you. Amber was so mad. I loved it. His timing was fantastic. But anyway, Gino, are you still over here? Okay, just so Gino just come over here to the microphone. So just late at night, Gino just finished doing his post game report. And Kyle was asking me if I am going to look like you by the end of the next two days. I hope not for your sake.

I feel like Kramer with all this sun. I actually, people always say, why don't you wear sunscreen? I go, I am wearing sunscreen. Now I will back Gino on that. So we were sitting on the beach a little bit on Sunday and Gino brought over, and it wasn't just like, I know people won't believe this. They'll think he doesn't use sunscreen but he uses suntan oil it

was copper tone 50 yeah thank you Elliot I I people don't believe me but I usually buy 30 or 50 and I do spend a lot of time in the Sun but I do mainly and mostly protect my skin with my increasing age. But this is, I don't know if it's cause I'm Italian, but it just, I end up looking like this. Yeah, I don't know if it's 50 or.5. Kyle's saying he doesn't know if it's 50 or.5. Oh yeah, they moved the decimals.

See, oh, we need you here Kyle. We miss you buddy, for more than just my sunscreen. Yeah, no exactly. You guys have been great. I have to say this too, like that tweet, I think it's Kyler Mimomoto, who did the tweet asking if you had survived a nuclear blast. We were circulating that all over the work chats.

And to your credit, you sent the Kramer. Yeah, I sent the Kramer. I actually, you know, Kramer. Yeah, I sent the Kramer. I actually, you know, when you're on TV, you're often not looking at yourself on TV, if that makes sense. And then when that was sent, I was like, do I look like that? And apparently I do. So we'll see. It is, Kyle, I should say, it's supposed to rain much of Wednesday and Thursday. So that might help tone this

whole thing down. But tomorrow I'll be out and then we'll see what the rest of the week brings here in Florida. Somebody else sent Brian Spear, our hockey night producer, sent a gift of a woman who is like burnt and it's and then the quote says I find nothing wrong with tanning. All right Gino before we wrap up the podcast are you still optimistic about the Oilers? Yeah you know what I think Elliot in some ways as disappointing as a double overtime loss is, I think this is a real motivator. We weren't in it, part of it was us, part of it was them. It was garbage time as Connor McDavid called it,

late in the game, we stuck up for each other. And now it's about moving forward, understanding that this is, you know, the game that might decide the series in game four. It won't be the clincher, but it might lead one team to the clincher, especially if it's Edmonton non-winning. All right, so Oilers fans,

Gino Maschino has not given up hope. You shouldn't either. Gene Principe setting the copper tone ahead of game four. Great, fun way to wrap up the pod, Elliot. So enjoy the couple days off, try to get a bit of sun, enjoy the good dinners, avoid the rain, and we'll talk to you again after game four, which comes Thursday night, 7.30 Eastern,

5.30 Mountain Time Hockey Central, puck drop from Amarin Bank Arena, a little after eight Eastern, pivotal game four of the Stanley Cup Final. We'll talk to you then big guy.