32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Pursuit of Hockey Happiness Begins

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

Jeff and Elliotte begin the show recognizing the tribute to Chris Snow in Calgary. They discuss the injury to Zach Werenski on Thursday night (3:29), talk about Connor Bedard's NHL debut and how Brad Marchand went after the young star (9:18). Next, they dive into the Canucks blowout of the Edmonton Oilers (23:30) and Elliotte revisits what he said about Elias Pettersson last episode. Jeff and Elliotte also talk about the Maple Leafs start to the season and the controversy behind them changing their goal song to Pursuit of Happiness (43:20).Jeff and Elliotte answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line (57:42).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and Jordan McRae and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.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.

And I am now available to be hired by team entertainment departments. Yes, because when I think of game ops and what's going to get a crowd going, I think of Elliott Friedman. That's right. All day long. Hmm, we need a good idea to really get them going here on the second intermission. Send up the Friedman bat signal. Let's call Elliott.

That'll really do it. Now that I'm clean shaven, apparently look better. It's going to work. Welcome once again to 32 Thoughts, the podcast brought to you by the new 2024 GMC Sierra HD. Jeff Merrick along with you alongside Elliot Friedman, who is in Calgary for the Chris Snow Memorial. And as we saw on Wednesday, not a dry eye in the place

as Kelsey Willa and Cohen Snow dropped the puck to kick off the season for the Calgary Flames. How was everything today, Elliot? Jeff, it was a beautifully done memorial service, and I wanted to recognize the speakers, Dave Leventhal, who worked with Chris all the way back to their student newspaper days at Syracuse. Brad Treeliving, who of course, now the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs,

who worked with him in Calgary. Colleen Snow, who is Chris's sister. And Kelsey Snow, his wife. Their children, Cohen and Willow, spoke briefly. But Kelsey Snow had an incredible speech. And the whole time that she was talking, I was saying, I don't think there's any way I could do it. It was a hard day, but in its own way, it was a beautiful day. And, you know, the way that those people spoke about Chris is the way he should be remembered.

It's an incredibly inspiring story, and it was pointed out. And it's something that I really think that people have to remember with him. The treatment that he agreed to try, the new research, the legacy is he's going to save lives in the future. And that's the most important thing to remember about him aside from the fact that he was a marvelous husband, father, and friend. Just a remarkable human being. And as we've all gotten to know them better through either social media or Kelsey's writing, just a beautiful family. Just an absolutely beautiful family. Okay, Elliot, let's get into a little bit more about the Columbus Blue Jackets. We'll get to the game.

We'll get to Zach Wierenski in a couple of seconds. Bad news story there. We cross our fingers. But the Josh Flynn board for Columbus, Elliot. Yes, so Josh Flynn, the assistant general manager for snowystrong.ca in honor of Chris Snow, snowystrong.ca.

He said he would donate $10 for every Columbus shot and $100 if they win. Well, Columbus had 33 shots, so that's $330. Columbus did not win. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to add the $100. If you can out there and you want to donate, please do. I understand that right now times are tight

and people may not be able to do that so i totally understand but it's 330 based on what flynn did plus a hundred dollars on the win snowy strong.ca put me down elliot for 100 as well i'm with you on that one excellent but i understand you know it's not easy for everybody to do, so any amount is perfectly acceptable, and we'd love to see it. Now, there was something that happened in that game. Zach Wierenski, who's had enough injury, bad luck in his career,

and we don't need to see any more, left the game after a knee-on-knee hit from Garnett Hathaway that got a two-minute minor. Now, the good news is pascal vincent said post game that it's not believed to be long term which is good eric and branson was upset i understand why the blue jackets were upset about it what did you think jeff i i think it was a penalty obviously i don't think that it wasn't the most egregious kneeing penalty that I've ever seen. I don't think that Hathaway went in there saying,

oh, I'm going to get a lick in here on Zach Wierenski and really take him out. It almost looked like, you know, Wierenski was skating behind the net, trying to escape from the hit and left part of his body exposed. Unfortunately, it was the part of his body that is just an awful thing to leave exposed. If you're a hockey player, it led to the quad contusion.

And we all cross our fingers and hope that Zach Wierenski is okay. I'll tell you, one of the first things that I thought of was what happened. I think we all thought about this. What happened to Zach Wierenski last year? There were two defensemen whose injuries really scotched any chances their teams had of making the playoffs. One was John Carlson with the Washington Capitals, and the other was Zach Wierenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

So to your point, I understand Goodbranson. I understand every member of the Blue Jackets. I understand Blue Jackets fans all saying, oh, please don't do this again to us. all saying, oh, please don't do this again to us. If CBJ is going to do anything this year in the Metropolitan Division, they need a healthy Zach Wierenski. I know they've bolstered their defense and Jarmo Kekulainen went out of his way

to get some reinforcements there. But without Zach Wierenski, it would be tough, Elliot. It would be tough. I don't want to see that. Nobody wants to see that. It's a penalty. I agree with you. It is a penalty. I don't want to see that. Nobody wants to see that. It's a penalty. I agree with you. It is a penalty.

I don't think it's a deliberate attempt to injure, but it's a penalty. I've been thinking about something that Jamal Mayer said on our show Wednesday night, and Jamal hit a lot of people in his career, and his word was that if it's your responsibility as the hitter to get at least half the body, and if you don't get half the body, it's your responsibility as the hitter to get at least half the body. And if you don't get half the body,

it's your fault. And I've been thinking about that nonstop ever since Jamal said it. And, you know, I think that's right. I think that's a rule that I'm going to adapt. It's your responsibility to get half the body. And I like hitting, but I like this idea. Hathaway didn't get half the body. And I like hitting, but I like this idea. Hathaway didn't get half the body. Penalty, I don't believe it was a deliberate attempt to injure.

Quick other comment on the game, namely the goaltender. So Flyers win this one by a final score of 4-2. They double up the Columbus Blue Jackets. Carter Hart was excellent. And here's another good news story. As much as we talk about how it was good news for the Calgary Flames that Jacob Markstrom had a really strong performance on Wednesday, Elvis Muzlikens was excellent in this game

with 25 save performance. And again, if Columbus is going to do anything, they're going to need all hands on deck. They're going to need to be healthy and they're going to need Elvis Muzlikens healthy and performing, even though in a losing effort on Thursday night, the way that he was on Thursday.

We've seen Conor Bedard in two NHL games. We've seen an assist. We've seen some aggressive play. We've seen a goal, a lovely wraparound against Linus Allmark, the reigning Vezina Trophy champion. What are your initial thoughts after watching the phenom for two games? He's for real. You know, the tough thing is that the guy who's supposed to play with him,

Taylor Hall, is hurt now. And so that's going to make life a little bit more difficult for him. But the one thing now is you see the skill in the sense that he's a one-man breakout. You know, he can create offense all by himself. And as this goes along, people are going to find ways to make life a little bit more difficult on him. And they're going to find ways to say,

okay, this is how we're going to get the puck out of his hands or maybe not even get the puck in his hands. But in some ways, it's similar to Connor McDavid in the fact that you just can't avoid it. Now, the difference with McDavid is that he's going to have more talent around him than Bedard will. But there is nothing that this guy has done in the first couple of games that makes me say he is anything less than what anyone has expected. I'll tell you what else I love too. I love the bucket list debut skate.

Oh yeah, I know you love that. With the feathers flowing, Elliot, him and Kevin Korchinski. And then it was copied in a couple other places. Now, some teams didn't go helmetless. You know, Fraser Minton for Toronto, Toronto he wore his helmet I saw some other guys that did too but there were a couple other players that went without and I love the idea I'm wondering here if I don't have clarity as we do this on whether or not people were given warnings like don't do that again or if it's been kind of like, if there's a fine, the other players will pay it.

For once, for your opener, for your debut at the beginning of the season, beginning of the year. I love it. It's just another nice little touch to start the season. I love it. You know, one of the things that I love too is, and again, this is a two-game audit, so I don't want to get too carried away, but Conor Bedard has played against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Boston Bruins. And in both games, in two very distinct ways,

superstars went at him. Sidney Crosby went at him aggressively on the draw. We saw it from the opening face-off. There were a couple of more times where Crosby just... Well, that's all Colby Armstrong's fault. Well, I know for the, we showed that in the intermission on Wednesday night hockey. Because Colby's couch, first of all, I want to say this about Colby's couch. It's a great feature.

Yeah, it's awesome. The couple I've seen have been excellent, but I made a joke that Colby's couch, there's no way it's that clean. Like if you know Colby Armstrong, you know that he would own the most disgusting couch in all of North America. He maintains that's not the case, but everybody here listening to this knows the truth. But if you'll remember when we interviewed Bedard

after he did that with Crosby in Vegas, he said, I guarantee to you that I won the thing that nobody thought i'd win and he won the thing that you think he might not win so crosby won the accuracy and bedard won the face off and instead what did crosby do oh clobbered him And I guarantee to you, Crosby remembered. I guarantee to you, he was like, you beat me in this game, I'm going to clobber you tonight. I guarantee you that since the Colby couch segment was recorded with those two and he lost the face-off segment

that all Crosby's been thinking about is knowing that he's going to face off against Bedard, that all he's been thinking about is that draw. I was just saying that. Like, he had that written. I mean, maybe Crosby does use a day timer. He could be a little bit old-fashioned. Maybe he uses notes on his iPhone.

Maybe he carries a spiral notebook. I don't know what he does, but the moment it, maybe he told the Penguin staff to remember that I lost this so you can remind me, whatever. You knew he was thinking about that the moment he lost that competition. That face-off win was the hardest pass that Ryan Graves got all game.

Maybe the hardest pass that Ryan Graves has received in his career. Crosby zipped that thing back to him. Like, there was no, like, ah, they're tying up a little bit. It's kind of a dirty draw. Let's see who ends up winning. No, no, no. That was clean and hard back to ryan graves i'm sure bedard will take the w over the face-off losses that that was a bad one for pittsburgh i'll say this again i i talked

about it in the blog this week but jeff you could see that night. Remember, I wrote in my notes that appeared Tuesday night about how it's not always easy to fit Carlson on your team because you have to give him separate rules than a lot of other players. And after that game, well, the next morning, the same person who told me that called me and he said, you could see it last night. They still haven't totally figured out how to work together. And that's a process that's going to take a little bit of time.

He said, that's not the reason Pittsburgh lost. And Pittsburgh's probably very happy. They only have to see Chicago one more time. But he said there were moments in that game where you could see on the ice that they weren't in lockstep with how to work Carlson in with what they do. Well, you know how Berkey always loves to say, I checked with the league and they're still only awarding one cup this year. Well, when they made the trade for Eric Carlson, I checked and they're only playing with one puck again this year.

Like I checked Elliot, there's still only one puck on the ice. Well, if Pittsburgh played Chicago 82 times, evidently they wouldn't be winning the Cup either. So there's the way that Crosby went at Bedard, and then in the subsequent game the next night against the Boston Bruins, there was the way that Brad Marchand went at

Conor Bedard as well. Essentially Welcome to the NHL. Lassoing him and dragging him into the Boston Bruinsins bench that's one of the things that i'm sort of enjoying here is how it is superstars in their own way that are testing the kid like they know like we've talked about this before you can't lie to players players players know who's legit and who's not and they're testing them and they're pushing them, and it's the superstars that are doing it. Elliott, I absolutely love that. Love that about the phenomenon.

And I'm sure Bedard did too. In a lot of ways, that's respect. Like, Brad Marchand isn't going to go after some puny nobody. He's going after the best player on Chicago's team, and I think Bedard's already their best player. There's a reason he's going after Bedard. It's exactly as you said. It is completely about he's the guy on the other team.

We've got to stop. You know, the other thing I thought about looking at that too was in some ways, I bet you that's Marchand's way of saying, well, here's the new kid on the block, the fresh guy that everybody's talking about, and everybody's saying the Bruins are done, Bergeron's gone, Krejci's gone, we're on our way down. Nah.

I'm here to show you that we're still the Bruins and we're going to be just fine. Like, I saw a couple different reasons why Marchand did that. And then the quote, like, marchand had a hell of a week he had some great quotes and the one about bedard being a little guy in the nhl and he goes well i'm bigger than him yeah i know like it was like it was hilarious like marchand started the season on fire by the way something else i wanted to mention to you is that i think people have to stop complaining about bedard getting the espn treatment on opening night why why would you why would you complain about that

i had people texting me like saying don't you think this is enough no elliot we are name them name them and shame them name them and shame them who are they who are these people name and shame it's like people who publicize dms which drives me crazy yeah i'm with you jeff we're the only sport where people would complain about this the only sport where people would complain about this i think it's amazing i love all those visuals of all the cameras and microphones around him before he's even taken a shift i i love that you know the pre the intermission you know the post with emily kaplan like all of it is all focused around conor bedard i think it's tremendous but the thing is like and it's about to get worse because where's he coming this weekend he's montreal baby he's Toronto. Montreal, baby, he's going to Montreal and Toronto. If you thought ESPN milked it bad, wait

till we get through with it. Yeah, I wonder who Marty St. Louis sends after Conor Bedard this weekend. We shall see. Nick Suzuki. Yeah, your assignment, Nick Suzuki, if you choose. So that's the Conor Bedard phenomenon and

more to come. And so far, it's been so much of a fun show to watch. Meanwhile, off the ice uh the buffalo sabres um kevin adams been busy uh locking up rasmus delene and then locking up owen power as well to a long-term contract extension so thompson locked up long-term delene samuelson cousins you can now add owen power to that list and we've talked, and you've talked a lot about this, about when you identify, you lock up long-term as long as you can. You know, I think one of the things that we learned

with both the, you know, all the Blackhawks are probably the best example when they won their three cups, you know, they would win a cup and then they'd have to, you know, jettison players because of salary cap ramifications. You know, this strategy sort of winks at we're going to lock up our best players through their prime years so if slash when we're successful we don't have to worry about losing all these players if we win the stanley cup they're already locked up i mean how many times we've seen tampa do this as well like this is a really again it is a gamble because you're you're betting that these are going to be the guys. It's a gamble, but I understand the play, Elliot.

Look, I don't think it's a gamble at all. I completely disagree with you on this. And not only do I disagree with you, I'm telling you you're 100% wrong. It's not a gamble when you have two cornerstone players who are going to be great players. These are the bets you take take is these kinds of players. And I think Buffalo has done.

A bet is a gamble, Elliot. We're arguing the same thing. No, as you know, I've never completed my English degree, so I don't understand how words work. You're very good. On the Buffalo signings, Jeff. Well, here's a question. Why seven years?

Why not eight? Well, I think that is one of the things that finally got it done. One thing that's clear is that Kevin Adams pushed to get both these guys done before the season. He wanted it done, done, done. And he really grinded to do it. We talked about Darlene the other day for power. The difference between seven years and eight is the difference between signing it just before you turn 29 and signing it just before you turn 30 i think that that was a thing for powers uh reps saying that it's another big deal if he signs it just before he turns 29 as opposed to just before he turns 30 so that was the concession i think buffalo made to get it done uh but big win for the sabers

big win for power you look at what auto was done you look what buffalo's done it wasn't too long ago when the late ray emery was fighting martin baron and ottawa and buffalo games were absolute mall fest so those games were so we're headed in that direction and i, and I will take that. Those games were so good. Those games were great. You know, that's interesting because you're really— They're going to be rivals for years now with great cores that are locked in. That's a really good point because you look at the Atlantic Division right now. No, I'm shy about giving you compliments, but I'll give you this one because you sort of nudged up against the truth accidentally.

You backed up into a true statement accidentally here. you sort of nudged up against the truth accidentally. You backed up into a true statement accidentally here. But for the longest time, you know, we've looked at the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs at times the Florida Panthers as well and said like, look at all these great games

with these high level teams. You're right. Like we're going to see over the next at least five or six years, some great, great games between these two teams. Like you're going to get some amazing hatred between Brady Kachuk and everybody on that Buffalo Sabres roster.

Everybody, Elliot, on that Buffalo Sabres roster. There's going to be the who's better Rasmus Delene or Jake Sanderson conversation. This one's going to be who's the better Tage Thompson versus Tim Stutzla. This is going to be fantastic's the better tage thompson versus tim stutzla this is going to be fantastic let's just hope that we get there sooner than later like i want this now i want this yeah i think it's coming i think in buffalo's case it's really coming and ottawa once they get their full lineup in there it's coming but you know like i have to say i'm not very happy with myself this week jeff what's

that i'll tell you why you got a haircut a shave you look nice you know why i can't believe how many people tell me how much better i look like you guys can be honest with me audience did i really look that disgusting up until wednesday afternoon because I had a bunch of people, like people out of nowhere telling me how much better I look. You look good on Wednesday. I must have just looked horrid. Anyway, what's my title? Insider.

First of all, I think the title Insider is stupid, and I never call myself that, but that's fine. I had a bad week this week. Really bad week. Why is that? Shifley had a bad week this week. Really bad week. Why's that? Shifley, I didn't see coming. Hellebuck, I saw coming. But hang on,

wasn't Shifley part of a conversation about Hellebuck? Wait, wait, wait. That once Hellebuck got close, that it became, what about double nickels? I'm flogging myself here. Please let me go ahead and do it.

I won't interrupt you flogging yourself. Shifley, I didn't see coming. Hellebuck, I saw coming, but was way off on the timing. Darlene, I saw coming, but was off on the timeline. And Power, I saw it coming. I wrote in the morning it was coming, but I was off on the timeline. Like, these were four big signings that I missed and didn't have great.

I knew a couple of them. I mean, three of them we knew they were coming, but I was way off on the timing. And this is a signal that the teams and agents are getting better at hiding. They have thrown down the gauntlet on me this week and they pounded me it was teams and agents basically for elliot zero basically what happened is the first game of the year i lost worse than the oilers the second game of the year i also got beat i'm 0 for 4 I've lost the first 4 games One of them, the Shifley was a blowout And the other 3

Were still not great You know what Bad week for me Time to build better relationships with arena and office staff People that overhear things I must be treating people very poorly I think I heard something Coming out of that office

over there i'm not sure but it sounded like mark shifley extension look into that elliot yeah it was it was not a good week for me i i have to say i was disappointed in my performance usually i'm disappointed in my performance but this week i was really disappointed in my performance uh edmonton was pretty disappointed in a couple of performances on wed. Vancouver, on the other hand, elated at a couple of performances, most notably Brock Besser with four goals, and Elias Pedersen, and JT Miller, and Quinn Hughes. Meanwhile, other end of the ice, yes, we did see one of those gorgeous goals by Leon Dreisaitl, again, from the impossible angle,

as I'm calling it now, trademark. Dreisaitl scores the impossible angle, as I'm calling it now, trademark. Dreisel scores the impossible angle goal. The goaltenders were hard to hit. 16 shots each. They both surrendered four. That was a tough one for them. Tough time defending. They really missed Matthias Ekholm.

Edmonton did. I want to get to Conor Garland in a second. But what did you make for about Vancouver's eruption on opening night, Elliot? Where do you want to start with? I mean, first of all. Brock Besser is where I want to start. First of all, I think Besser is the best story because he is, last year, it was great to see the Brocktober chance going up again and people talking about Brocktober.

Last year was a really tough year. We all know everything his family went through. There was a time last year he had permission to seek a trade. Then at the end of the year, he kind of changed his mind. Like, just what an awesome way to start the year. I think if you're human, you're happy for Brock Besser. And I think everybody would be. But to me, the story was Pedersen.

Pedersen set the tone. That flip pass to Garland, that was unbelievable. Like we showed it, what Colby did when he had Drysadlin and McDavid do flip passes or saucer passes, I guess is what I should say, with nine and a half feet full of barriers in front of them. But that's just two guys on a rink in Vegas. Nobody's chasing them. They can have fun.

They can take as much time. Pettersson started out, like forget the goal. He threw a saucer pass four and a half feet in the air that just fluttered by Kulak and landed perfectly on Garland's stick. Like that's one of the best plays we're going to see all year. And it happened on the second night of the season. Garland, left wing for Pedersen, into the oiler zone. Pedersen floats into the goal.

Garland scores! A seeing eye pass from Elias Pedersen lands on the tape of Connor Garland in the front of the net, and it's 1-0 Canucks. And then the hit he put on CeCe. Like, I'll tell you a story. So when we did the Pedersen interview on the boat in Stockholm, he had some pictures of himself sort of like then and now i think they were two or three years old

and what he looked like this summer and it's notable how much bigger and stronger he looks and you know he didn't want to publish them which i totally understand like not everybody is comfortable with that and i totally get it one of the things he talks about is how he moved to stockholm so he could train better and he ran over cc and you know what that hit was jeff that was mean there was nothing wrong with it but it was mean it was tough to tell on the video but i think dry sidle said something to him but it was not dirty it was mean like the thing is that's the kind of hit that petterson takes because he's such a great player that's the way and he's like nope this year i'm getting the big hit in first like there was a lot of discourse this week on petterson and some of it was my fault i didn't think what i said was

that big a deal you know i forgot that you know i'm dealing with vancouver so it's a big deal and then you threw gasoline on the fire oh i don't know what you're talking about you know we all know what's going on here petterson says i want to wait the team's like okay we'll wait he set the tone like bester was the great story but petterson set the tone i thought he was dynamite and the other thing i thought was really good was you talked about dry sidles goal. Edmonton could score seven goals at any one time. The Canucks,

they did not let up their foot on the gas. I thought everything about that game was fantastic for Vancouver, obviously. But I will say this, you know, look, it's one game, Oilers, you're going to have five stinkers a year.

You don't want it to be on opening night. It happens. I had one guy called me on Thursday morning. They said, you should rip all of those thoughts about Edmonton out of your blog. He called it old takes exposed or freezing cold takes they're too old takes exposed the one thing that i was talking about with a couple of guys is look you're gonna have bad games but you shouldn't edmonton should not be losing like that to vancouver's defense core and i was like you know come on like you're gonna pick on that

and they said that vancouver defense core should not be beating edmonton eight to one and i bet you that's gonna be a wounded it better be a wounded bear on saturday night like you can lose eight to one it happens but they're playing again If you don't come back the next game and just be out for revenge, you've got problems, real problems. A couple of things here. One, it's one of our favorite lines by Gord Stelic. If you're going to suck, suck on the road. Don't do it.

Yes, if you're going to stink, stink on the road. I used that on Wednesday night. Yeah, that's a beauty. Love that line by Gord Stelic. Next game is against the Vancouver Canucks, and that is Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada. So enjoy that one. Not just Conor Bedard and the Blackhawks

against the Montreal Canadiens on Hockey Night in Canada, but also the return match. I would expect Matthias Ekholm to be in that game, Elliott, for Edmonton. He wasn't in that game on Elliot, for Edmonton. He wasn't in that game on Wednesday, and it was pretty noticeable. They had a really hard time defending without Ekholm there. I said that on Wednesday, and the same guy who spoke to me, he said, you gave them an excuse.

I said, what do you mean? He goes, by pointing out that Ekholm wasn't playing, you gave them too much of an excuse. He said, with Ekholm playing, maybe they lose five to two instead of eight to one. That was a lot bigger than Ekholm. A lot bigger. It's interesting too, because you go through the goals, you're like, okay, that one is Kulak's goal. Okay.

That one is Bouchard's goal. Like you went through a lot of those goals and there was like one defenseman you could pin it on. Now, mind you, as I mentioned before, they were firing balloons through the goalies. You know, Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner didn't exactly have Vesna trophy nights, but nonetheless, we shall see what happens on Sunday. The other Vancouver issue, Connor Garland

and his new agent, Judd Moldaver, have been given the green light to try to help facilitate a trade out of Vancouver. Do we know if this is a salary dump trade or a hockey trade, as we like to call it? What's Vancouver after here? It could be both. Part of me just thinks that they want to have some flexibility to do something in the free agent market next summer.

So they'd be willing to take a contract of the same value, albeit one that expires at the end of the year. I don't know. But I am curious what Vancouver is looking for for Conor Garland. I think it could be both. First of all, if you look right now, Garland, and he had that big goal. He did.

He's playing in the spot right now that should go to Mikheyev when Mikheyev's back. So part of this to me is, what is his role once Mikheyev comes back? See, it's really unusual in the sense that, you know, players do change agents. It happens, you know, probably a bit more than people realize, but it's rare to have a player change the agent two years into a five-year contract. Yeah. And right before the season.

Like, that's a good deal that garland got because previous agent did not do a bad deal for him what i think this is about is his new agent is judd moldaver who's very aggressive and i think this is about finding somebody who can aggressively get him to another team now there's been reports that garland asked for a trade i'm getting people telling me that's not the case however i think it's pretty clear right now that garland wants this to be pushed along he doesn't want to not play i think he's probably tired of the uncertainty um and i think that this is all about can the agent help facilitate something now in most cases that doesn't necessarily happen but I think that there is a case in Vancouver

where it has happened and Roberto Luongo not long before he was traded from Vancouver to Florida he switched his agent and he became represented by Pat Persaud. I think I can say this now. At the time, everybody thought that Luongo wasn't going to get traded. And Pat Persaud said to me, we're going to get him traded. I said, you know, there's no way that that's going to happen. And he said, we're going to get him traded. And then came the outdoor game in Vancouver

where Eddie Lack started instead of Luongo. And a couple other people started whispering to me that it is possible that this is going to get done. And I said it on air the night at that outdoor game. I think it was actually the night before the game. And Glenn Healy said to me you're nuts there's no way they are trading that contract and i think what happened in that case was the agent through knew some situations florida and vancouver started talking and they finally got to a place where they could get that deal done. But that was a case where changing the agent made a difference.

Now, I still think it's going to be a challenge, but there's no question that what has happened here is there's much more of an aggressive push. Now, one team I'm curious about here, Jeff, is Nashville. I'm not saying it's going to be them, but I've kind of wondered about them. For one, they have cap room. For two, they're looking for the kind of player I think that would fit with Barry Trotz and Andrew Burnett. You know, Vancouver's going to have to incentivize this.

There's a couple of teams telling me they're probably going to have to do it, keep at least 30% and see what other sweetener is there. But, you know, I had a couple people tell me of all the teams that might actually it makes sense it could be nashville but we'll see if it happens um i know a lot of people have guessed columbus because columbus is extra d and vancouver is for defense. But I don't know how much interest Columbus would or would not have in the player. We shall see. The thing about it though, it's interesting because right now, and especially now with

teams, so many teams capped and no room to really move and it's so hard to make deals. But if you look historically here, when do trades start to get made? January. It's hard and teams don't really do it. One, they want to have a long look. What does Ken Holland always talk about? U.S. Thanksgiving. They want to have a long look at what they have before they start to look around the trade market, unless something just ridiculous falls into their laps. And I don't think this would fit that bill so as much as the connor garland camp wants to get something done quickly here teams don't really trade until the new year now again that might all change i know you've

always said one phone call and all that does depend on the deal but historically in this flat cap universe that everybody lives in right now, teams don't start making moves until January for each. You're right. There's no question. I mean, look at how constipated we are right now. We have four teams starting the season with 17 skaters instead of 18. Now, I am under the impression that that Edmonton-Vancouver game on night one

was the first time ever. 11 and 6? Yeah, both teams. Two teams have played shorthanded against each other. I asked someone who's really good with the cap. He said, you never know for sure until you look it up. But he said he can't remember it ever happening before. And it's the first week of the season. Second day of the season.

Speaking of, which we had an email about this that we never got to last week. And I apologize. I don't have the person's name in front of me. Speaking of things that have happened that are unique and you never think of, who inquired about Spencer Knight going down to the American Hockey League. And the question was, is he the most expensive player that didn't need waivers to go down to the American Hockey League? And I checked with someone at the American League,

and they said they believed that that was true, but they'd get back to me and haven't. So I think that that is true as well, that Spencer Knight becomes the most expensive hockey player to go down to the American League without needing waivers. Of course, Jeff, we're saying all these great things about Buffalo, and they go out and they lose their home opener to the Rangers, and we have to shout out Alexi Lafreniere.

Yes. First goal of the season for the Rangers after a tough, tough preseason where everybody was all over him. He scores four minutes in. And he was a big part of the Artemi Panarin goal as well. Did a lot of the work to get that puck to Panarin. And man, did he snap that pass, Levi. Woo!

Anyway, it was a packed house in Buffalo to watch a loss. But good for Alexi Lafreniere. Not Alexi Lafreniere, but Alex Laferriere in Los Angeles, Elliot, and the fight with Logan O'Connor. By the way, I don't know what was more impressive, the fight by the kid, and I think it was his first fight ever in hockey, or the family's reaction. Oh, that was great. They were calling banana sandwich.

I thought I was watching the octagon. It was crazy. And then there was like the judo throw at the end of all of it too. What a crazy moment. The family's going nuts. For a second there, I thought I was watching UFC and they accidentally spliced a UFC crowd

into a hockey game. Look, we all live to see our loved ones do well, right? Like that's what we care about. And that's the realist reaction you're going to see in the NHL this season. There's going to be nothing. It was night two of the season and we had our best goal reaction of the year. I am proclaiming the contest over. And if the Laferriere family is happy, I'm thrilled for them.

I have to say this, though. Colorado, I know it's one night. Boy, did they look good. L.A. is a good structure team. They just picked them apart. They just picked them apart. Mikko Rantanen, Elliot, with four points, comma, again, just like the first game of the season last year.

That guy delivers. Now, that fight happened after the Pierre-Luc Dubois knee on Frederick Olofsson. That's what got all that craziness going. There were some players around the league I heard who didn't like that. It was funny because I was texting with a couple of players, a couple of people. We were joking about the reaction of the family because everybody was so happy to see it. But a couple of the players in particular, they felt that le ferrier shouldn't have had to take that fight that dubois should have the code but they were happy for the family so they said yeah we'll deal with it they made a point to say they thought that dubois should have had that fight it's a

tough one with la though with victor arvidsson going on long-term. Yep. That's LTIR. That's a, that's a tough one for the Kings. He's a really good player. Really enjoy him. Elliot, a little bit later on here, we're going to talk about some other signings around the NHL, but I am curious about Colorado and could there be another signing here on the horizon, Elliot? Well, I think this, when it comes to devon taves i have no reason to believe remember tase right the training camp said basically if it's not going well we'll cut off

talks yeah i don't believe they've cut off talks uh i think they're still talking and I believe there's been momentum. We will see. But the one thing that seems to be going around the league is that Taves and the avalanche are really trying here, really trying. So there's been some momentum, but until it's done, it's not done. Toronto Maple Leafs. They have to claw back from multi-goal leads,

not once but twice. It took not overtime, but a shootout to get there. Mitch Marner with the heroics in the shootout. Austin Matthews with the heroics in game with the hat trick. Your thought on, listen, you were there. You worked it. Opening night, the Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadi game with the hat trick you thought on listen you were there you worked it opening night uh the maple leafs and the montreal canadians thoughts on both teams the the big story of course was the goal song i don't yeah i i don't know i i was i was with you like i think it was

time to do away with the hollow notes song but uh you know what the problem is here i don't know okay so i gotta tell you what the problem is here okay this is how bananas this this story has been in the preseason okay so as i said first preseason game we did i heard the goal song i said to the producer it was david azuma i'm gonna do this for fun to me, this is funsies. It's preseason. It's not serious. You know, David Amber can barely put four words together, so he needs somebody to go on a rant about something

so David can find his tongue. So I'm like, I'm going to do this, and we're all going to have fun with it. It goes ridiculous. It's fun. Like, to me, It's fun. Like, to me, it's fun. Like, that's the kind of stuff that fans and media and everybody should have fun with because it's a goal song. Like, with everything that's going on in the world, it's a goal song.

It's fun. Well, it turns out, as they have said, they were doing a lot of research into it. But I think after I joked about that i've been told it came up in a board meeting like a maple leaf sports entertainment board meeting and they said we have to change this so i think there was a lot of internal pressure and i think even from players too to get it done and now they've got a mix there's different themes for original six or throwback nights or the kids days or whatever and you know what i think this is i think it's because they couldn't settle on one that was the big problem i think the plan was to change it this

summer but there wasn't one song that grabbed everybody so they came up with this multitude and you know last one last night it wasn't a hit i don't think like there's some people who are upset about the lyrics that doesn't bother me kyle bakoska's pointed out that it was a canadian's hype video song in 2021 playoffs. That's going to bother some people. It doesn't really bother me, but I recognize sometimes teams get embarrassed about that stuff. It doesn't bother me. I mean, some people do go goofy about it.

I remember when Billy Wagner, the relief pitcher, was signed by the Mets. He came in to enter Sandman and New York went bananas because that's Mariano Rivera's song. You can't play that here. So he had to change it. You know, my kid likes Steve Aoki, who does the remix on that. So I thought that was kind of cool, but it didn't grab me. Like, I have to tell you, Jeff, I cannot believe what a life of its own this thing has taken. It came up at a board meeting, apparently, someone told me.

I got one comment about it. After this, I want to leave anything that I say about this song out of it. I realized years ago that not everything has to be about me or has to please me or has to tickle me under the chin or has to make me giggle or has to make me think. Like a long time ago, I realized, hmm, even though I'm at the center of every experience that I have, maybe the rest of the world doesn't see it my way. And I'm just seeing it through my own narrow vision. So that's exhibit A. Exhibit B, when you're coming up with something like this, you look around

your fan base and you say, okay, what can we put together that's going to please everybody? And the answer is nothing. Because if you've ever been at a family reunion or a family picnic and music is playing, some people are into it and most aren't. You need to pick a demographic and go for it. An audience at a hockey game is not a very narrow demographic. It is a lot of people from different ages and different backgrounds. You are not going to please everybody. And when you try to provide something that has a little bit for everybody everybody gets pissed off because nobody is happy pick your demo and go for it if it's not for a guy like me or a guy like elliot or anybody else listening so be it that's fine i think the key is jeff the

first note that comes out or the first couple seconds that come out, it has to grab you. It can't be flat. Like, I'm not the biggest U2 guy in the world, but when the Canadians used Vertigo as their goal song, they started it in a way that the whole building's already excited because the Canadians have scored, and now people are going bananas. You know, the Sabres announced all their player goal songs

the other day. I think it's excellent. Like, one of my favorite songs, the way it it starts is Hell's Bells by ACDC and yes I know I'm a thousand years old but when those bells come on I'm like I'm ready to run through a wall you've either got to pick a song that has a great first note or go in the middle where it's got a big beat i'll tell you a funny story go for it okay this is late 80s okay there was a big song called the conga by miami sound machine glory i remember that yeah that song okay of course yeah so i'm like 17 18 years old at the time and you're looking like

you're an extra on miami vice no i i couldn't even pull that off i wish i looked as good as those two guys but i could not pull it off and it actually was a high school dance and that song came on i was like oh this song stinks and i didn't want to dance to it and i remember one of the girls in the high school she she said to me, if you ever want to have success with women, you have to like to dance to songs like this. And I said, what do you mean? She goes, look at it out there. It's got the beat. People are going crazy to it.

And it kind of was, it was true. And I always remembered that. And one thing that never really changed for 30 years was success with the opposite sex jeff but i understood the psychology of music before i always used to think about it as what do i like or what do i not like then i began to think about it in a social event. It is what is something that the moment it comes on, it's going to get people going. And that's what they have to search for. That's what everybody has to search for.

And I am now available to be hired by team entertainment departments. Yes, because when I think of game ops and what's going to get a crowd going, I think of Elliott Friedman. That's right. All day long. Hmm, we need a good idea to get a crowd going, I think of Elliott Friedman. That's right. All day long. Hmm, we need a good idea to really get them going here on the second intermission. Send up the Friedman bat signal.

Let's call Elliott. That'll really do it. Now that I'm clean shaven, apparently look better. That's going to work. Anyway, the game itself was fantastic. It was a great no-defense game. It was so sloppy. It was so sloppy. It was so sloppy.

I loved it. It was so sloppy. And then there was a stretch for Montreal. It didn't touch the puck. There was a money. They, all they could do is dump it in. Like nothing went towards the net at all.

Like how long was that? Jeff, it was until they scored their next goal. They didn't have a shot on goal from the one that was disallowed till they tied it at 3-0. Yeah. Then Toronto almost blew the game, unbelievably,

and then they won it. Defense optional has been, and we always see this. Listen, we always see this in the first few weeks of the season, right? I don't know why we should be surprised that the Canucks blowing out the Edmonton Oilers

or the Maple Leafs, who are allegedly Stanley Stanley Cup contenders blowing two multi-goal leads against the Montreal Canadiens on opening night this is kind of the way it always is in the first couple of weeks of the season no one's sharp no one's crisp nothing's settled yet weird things they're gonna happen I don't know why we pretend to be surprised about any of it. Real quick, do you have a thought about Calgary's opening night? Yes. As a matter of fact, I thought maybe the most important performance on that night of the season was Markstrom. Was it Markstrom or Mangiapane?

No, I think Markstrom. There were a lot of things I liked. First of all, that was another really good game. Hang on a second. Hang on. When Kyle Conner scored that goal, did scored that goal did you not say oh here we go again well first of all because he started so well they it was one of those situations where they could have been scored on the first shot but he made a bunch of great saves and then he gives up that awful goal and you're like oh like exactly as you said but he recovered and they recovered like the the

problem only last year wasn't him giving up bad goals it was the flames reaction to them and you know there were a couple of tough moments in that game but the flames really battled and markstrom really battled he had some saves at the end of the second period that were unreal. Winnipeg should have won that game. Winnipeg was the better team. But the Flames did. They battled and Markstrom gave them everything that happened in that game except for maybe one bad goal.

You would say it was a great omen for Calgary, but the way they responded to everything was big. And by the way, I'm going to say a lot of nice things about Calgary because I met Taylor Conroy on Thursday, who is an avid listener to the pod, and apparently she's not always happy

with some of the things I say about the Flames. So now that I know that Taylor's a listener, I'm going to be a lot more polite. That's right. You'd be on your best behavior around Calgary Flames conversations or Taylor is going to be on you, Elliott Friedman. Yes. Jeff, before we go to the thought line.

Yes. What did I like most of the first three nights of the season? What did you like the most? Probably that Daniel Sprong scored the first goal for the Detroit Red red wings this season that was that was definitely not it oh wait that was me okay apologies uh the jackie race for the first beautiful jack goals by jack musicals i know um i don't know what did it for you what's by the slot machine oh that was great it was so Vegas. It was so cheesy and awesome.

It was fantastic. But I mean, you could see it coming a million miles away that it was going to ring three Stanley Cups. And I don't care. Oh, who cares? It was beautiful. By the way. I've seen some teams play some terrible games after putting their banner up. They looked really good.

Really good. Not in that first five or six minutes yeah but they figured it out no i know but didn't you get the feeling that okay it's another banner raising night seattle is all over them and okay it's going to be one of those nights where it's just not going to be there for the team that just for a bit but they turned it around low-key one of the real interesting contract conversations this year. Marcia So? Chandler Stevenson.

Ah. Marcia So is the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, right? And plus, he's an original misfit. I think that one's going to get a lot of spotlight, but Chandler Stevenson to me. Chandler Stevenson is finishing a four-year deal at $2.75 million a season, and he will be 30 in April. JT Comfer is a year younger than him, and he just got five times 5.1.

Kelly McCrimmon may disagree with my mathematical theories here, but I got to think that's the market for Stevenson. That's a nice size contract for someone who like that is going to go down as one of the best deals that Vegas ever made and contracts and contracts that Vegas ever made. That Vegas ever made. And contracts. And contracts that Vegas ever made.

And he is the definition of the late NHL bloomer, giving hope to a lot of other hockey players out there. I think that guy gets paid all day long. He's one of my favorite players on that Vegas team. He's just flat out good. Love him. Yep. All right. Quick break.

Montana's Thought Line is next. yep all right uh quick break montana's thought line is next listen to the 32 thoughts podcast ad free on amazon music included with prime All right. Some interesting questions here on the Montana's Thought Line presented by Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue, Elliott tagline. Try the ribs. And the deep fried pickles.

32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca one, eight, three, three, three, one, one 3232 email 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca one, eight,

three, three, three, one, one 3232 Matt from new Haven, Connecticut. Uh, greetings from new Haven,

Connecticut go Nighthawks. Very old HL reference that Nighthawks team, by the way, had always had some of the biggest sluggers in the history of the American Hockey League. That was a tough team. Two questions for you. One, given the likely expansion but

unknown number, have you thought of renaming the podcast 30 something thoughts, 32-ish thoughts, or 1 billion thoughts for the price of an expansion franchise and then second question more seriously can you help us understand why some players have to pass through waivers to go down to the american league and some don't and why some players can't go to the ahl and only juniors. First of all, the name, I remember when it was 30 Thoughts,

your old blog at cbcsports.ca. The thought on the blog and then the thought on, and the fill in the blank about why some players have to go through waivers and some don't. Yes.

Basically, this is in the CBA and if you want, there are charts online that can help you understand this. Take it to the beach. It's fun. Next time you go on vacation, take the CBA to the beach. That's right.

It's a good time. That's what Elliot does. Beer, a drink with an umbrella in it, a cigar, and the CBA. You guys go have fun. You guys go play beach volleyball. Make sure you take some SPF 50. I bet some of you guys burn easy. I'm going to read the CBA here on the beach.

Oh, I know. Listen, I'm like the Polish flag. I'm either marry a CBA here on the beach oh I know I listen I'm I'm like the the Polish flag I'm either white or red like there's no in between man Jeff Polish flag okay so basically it comes down to what age you sign your contract and and how long you've been around and basically what waivers are is it's supposed to protect against a guy who can't make a team and not getting an opportunity to play somewhere else. So if you sign when you're 18, there's so many years or games until they start having to put you on waivers.

And it's longer when 18. I think if you sign your first contract when you're 23 or 24 plus, it's only one year before that they have to put you on waivers. So basically what it is, is if you're a player who's signed by a team, you get a certain amount of years where they can send you up and down forever.

But then after a while, if they want to send you down, you have to be made available to everybody else. That's to give you another opportunity in theory. So that's what that is about. That's the way waivers work. One final thing from Matt from New Haven. He does add one thing.

P.S. Time to start calling Amel the old Dom, don't you think? Oh, yes. I like that. So Dom isn't new Amel. Amel is old Dom. Okay. I like that one.

Get some Amel shade here on the podcast. Okay. Here's one. We're going overseas. We are going to Sweden. Isak. Hi, Jeff and Elliot. I'm writing to you from Malmo, Sweden, home of Andrej Burakovsky, Rasmus Andersson,

Karl Soderbergh, and many other great players. First of all, thanks for a great show. Currently playing NHL 24 and listening to you guys. Can't wait for the season to start. This is from last week. My question is regarding cap space. I understand that it's there to make sure there is a somewhat leveled playing field. But is there a cap for the entire organization?

For other staff, location, transports, et cetera? Are teams allowed to hire as much support staff as they want? Or is there a cap there too? Thanks again. Looking forward to hearing your answer. Elliot very rudely answered your question before I was able to actually spit it out. If you'd like to elaborate, Elliot, the floor is yours. The only cap

is a budget. Yes. But there's no official cap. And that's why all those things, the minute the salary cap came in after the 0405 lockout, all of a sudden all those things became really important. Like what you're providing to

the players above and beyond what their salary is. Because when the money is all the same, no matter what team you providing to the players above and beyond what their salary is. Because when the money is all the same, no matter what team you go to, those other things start to matter. And that's where the big market teams still have a significant advantage. You look at what the Maple Leafs can provide players or the Montreal Canadiens or the New York Rangers. can provide players or the Montreal Canadiens or the New York Rangers. All the big market teams can still provide a lot more things for the player to have the true NHL experience

more so than the small market teams, Elliot. I agree with that. I'm sure some of the smaller market teams find some things to try to go the extra mile, but that is the advantage. There's the cap on salary salary but there's not the cap on other things i will say this though jeff so one of the teams that is sort of like multi ownership like they have multi-sports teams one of the managers there told me that one of his compatriots from another sport said that from what he has seen most teams in the other sports

are closer from top to bottom than hockey really hockey has yes he said that hockey is some of the widest disparities apparently and i asked a couple guys about that and they said they would tend to think that that's true. They said that hockey has wider disparities than some of the other sports from top of class team off field to bottom. Interesting. We'll end up with this one.

Paul in Sacramento, Jeff and Ellie, with so many teams so tight against the cap this year, there has to be more potential for teams to make a, quote, goof and maybe unintentionally violate the cap rules for a game or two. How does the league police this, and do they coordinate with the teams on staying under the cap? What happens to a team that is found over the cap? Do they pay a fine?

If so, who gets the money? Thanks, guys. i just don't even think it can happen that's what central registry is for they don't approve your roster i think technically if you are found in violation over the cap i think it's forfeit i think technically that's what happens i think it would be more like the league missed it like if the league approves your roster they can't retroactively say they can take a player away, but I don't think they can cause you to forfeit a game. That's crazy.

But the thing is central registry can't change your roster. Yes, they can. What central registry is going to start sending guys down to the American league for you? Yeah. They would say that your roster is illegal. I understand that,

but I'm saying like hypothetically, if a team just said, well, screw it, we're playing anyway, we'll take the the fine i don't think it's a fine i think it's oh my god what kind of scenario is that's i'm what the team's gonna say i don't care if we're gonna play anyway like would you listen to yourself that's never gonna happen i understand what you're saying all i'm saying is i believe if you do play with an illegal roster i believe it is or you try to play i believe okay let me let me just say this what is the name of the questioner paul in sacramento paul thank you for submitting the question it's a very reasonable question

i am ashamed at jeff taking this to the extreme that he is taking it it is ridiculous what you were saying you mentioned that you're ashamed, but you're not surprised. How long have you known me, Elliot? That is true. I love life at the extremes. Always been that way. All right, thanks to everyone who submitted questions and comments

on the Montana's Thought Line, Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue. We'll be right back. Okay, Elliot, wrapping up, and I guess we'll put the book, a Conor Bedard bookend on this podcast. We started talking about hockey, about Conor Bedard on the podcast today,

and we'll finish it with Conor Bedard. The Blackhawks in Montreal on Saturday, in Toronto on Monday, and considering it's Canada and he's a phenom in our first overall draft pick, I'm sure everybody will be level-headed about Conor Bedard this weekend in Canada. Oh, but they shouldn't be level-headed. They should be excited. They should be ecstatic. Why not be crazy in Montreal? Why not be crazy in Montreal?

Why not be crazy in Toronto? I'm really looking forward to seeing it, and I hope everybody enjoys it. Absolutely. And on the horizon on Saturday, it'll be big time as well on Hockey Night in Canada. Mentioned Chicago facing off against Montreal. Also, the Calgary Flames travel to Pittsburgh to face off against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh penguins,

the Minnesota wild take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. We mentioned the nightcap game earlier on that is Edmonton and Vancouver. And it is loaded. We are loaded with hockey. Once again, Elliot, I know you're looking forward to hockey night in in Canada as always big teams in action and I gotta tell you I'm with you if Edmonton

doesn't come out Saturday house on fire their barn their players their anger their memories of what happened on Wednesday then I don't know what to make of the Edmonton Oilers your thoughts about this one a marquee

matchup on the schedule Saturday. Jeff, you know who I want to give a shout out to because we already kind of talked about this. I want to give a shout out to the Edmonton Oilers social media team because at the end of the game, after Vancouver made it 8-1

on Wednesday night, the Oilers social media team tweeted 8-1 hashtag let's go Oilers. You are employee of the month if you are sending out that tweet after the eighth goal by Vancouver. Shout out, Oilers social media team. Whoever did that. Because you know people are going to dunk on you.

Yeah, you did that. You get a raise to dunk on you yeah you did that you get a raise and maybe even a corner office as well and a lot of online attack yes well done uh thanks for listening to the podcast once again always appreciate it always appreciate the downloads enjoy the hockey over the weekend we We will rejoin on Monday. Have a great weekend.