32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Rise of David Carle

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman highlight the NHL demand for Head Coach David Carle who just secured his second straight World Junior gold medal for the USA. Once the fellas finish opining over the World Juniors, they focus on Auston Matthews' first two games back with the Toronto Maple Leafs (10:20). That makes way for a conversation about the crossroads that the Boston Bruins are facing (15:00). Kyle and Elliotte talk about the Ottawa Senators who are firmly in the playoff race out East but without Linus Ullmark. Do they go out and get a stopgap (17:21)? The guys delve into the intricacies of Frank Vatrano's extension and the future of deferred salaries in the NHL (27:16) and Elliotte highlights Canes forwards Eric Robinson as a player to keep an eye on with regards to a contract extension (41:30). The Final Thought focuses on the continued drama surrounding the Vancouver Canucks' two star forwards (45:11). Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions and respond to your voicemails in the Thought Line (51:22).In the final segment, Kyle and Elliotte focus on the Montreal Canadiens' outstanding road trip across four different time zones (1:07:50).  Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis 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

Man that was a long trip. It was carnage. I'll just say that Carnage for you or the players I can't speak for the players. I think they got they got one win there But it was carnage for the production crew Now I have to say this carnage for Kyle is very different than carnage for most people. I'm not saying that you're like a lose. Well, you're not like a loser or anything like that, but you're not, you're not irresponsible. Welcome to 32 thoughts. The podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X, for X, Shramati Friedman and your reigning in season cup champion. Up to five days. Yeah. How many total days do you have, Elliot?

31. It doesn't matter how many total days you have. OK, Rock. Thanks for coming out. I'm depressed tonight, by the way. Oh, please expand. Sam Darnold struggled early overthrew a couple receivers Vikings got pounded I owe David Alter dinner. Alters you know what you're getting alter? Ponderosa I hope you like it. Our colleague Arash Madani went to the game did you see that? Yeah I was supposed to go too but I had

to work flyers maple leaves so I couldn't go. I can honestly say, I'm glad I didn't get subjected to that in person. I even wore my Vikings cufflinks and didn't help. No, they needed a lot more than cufflinks on Saturday. Amazing. 14 wins and they're in a wild card, but hell of a division this year. So from football back to hockey, Elliott. And Sunday night, it had been the talk of the last few days, certainly in this country, the World Junior Hockey Championship. Heck of a final day on Sunday.

14-round shootout for the bronze medal. Congratulations to Czechia there. And then the overtime heroics of Team USA. Teddy Stiga, first goal of the tournament. The Americans are back to back champions for the first time in the program's history, Elliott. Somebody sent me a note that that was Stiga's first shot of the tournament, too.

He didn't play much throughout the tournament. 1,000 shooting percentage. I'm going to guess that that led the tournament. Heck of a shot. If that's going to be your first one, heck of a shot. And now I think the number one storyline that's going to come out of this is what NHL team is going to throw a pile of money at David Carl. People love winners. He's got a couple of NCAA championships at the University of Denver and he's got two back-to-back, so two total, World

Junior Championships as the head coach of Team USA in an age where teams are really searching for coaches who can identify with and reach young players. Last year, St. Louis interviewed him and considered him. New Jersey did kind of a... I think New Jersey was always looking for Keith. Like I think he was always the guy, especially if Toronto made that change. But they did a conversation with Carl. It wasn't very in depth. It was more scratching the surface, but they talked to him. It was more scratching the surface, but they talked to him. But the one thing that Carl could do is he could say, look, I could coach at Denver for 11 billion years. I've got a young family.

I've got a great situation. I can comfortably live for a long time. If I'm coming out of here, someone's going to have to make it worth my while. I just don't understand how after this somebody isn't going to try to make it worth his while. Because you know you can say well that's juniors coaching NHL players gonna be a bit different the NHL players watch this tournament they know who can coach they know who can't coach they're gonna look at this guy and they're gonna say this guy can coach there's a lot of players who come out of Denver or play

against Denver who are now in the NHL, they're going to look at this guy and they're going to say he can coach. You can sell David Karl to NHL veterans because you know, he was, he was a player. His brother, Matt was a player. There's a lot. All you have to do is look at your television screen or watch the games, watch the games nerd and you can tell that this guy is a coach. Somebody is going to take a run at him and he has enough power. The most powerful thing in negotiation is the willingness to walk away because of his current situation at Denver. He

is willing to walk away from NHL teams if he doesn't like not only the money but the situation. Situation is very important. What makes people sexier Kyle rejection when you think someone can reject you you're even after them more speak for yourself yes I'm speaking from plenty of experience no I know right the power to say no if you can if you have the power to say no. If you can, if you have the power to say no, it makes you even more wanted. And I think David, I think David Karl, I would be shocked if someone doesn't take a big run at him this summer. Shocked. If not sooner. Talk to a player that played for him at Denver said does great

job of giving his players just a calm but confident demeanor, just a terrific influence in terms of setting the tone and in that dress room and as you say a couple national titles with the pioneers a third one when he was part of Jim Montgomery staff back in 2017 and now the back-to-back gold medal so having said all of that is there a coach out there right now that's not in the NHL that has a higher stock, a higher value than David Carl currently has at this stage, you think? Boy, that's a good question. Was there anybody you were thinking off the top of your head? He would be right near the top for me. I would

think he would have to be number one. Now someone's going to listen to this podcast, they're going to come up with another idea, but I would think right now he would have to be number one. The only thing I didn't like about him in this tournament was that. So after the leaf came in, because me and Nick and Dave, we were working the Philadelphia, Toronto regional tonight. So that game ended and we sat down to watch the end of regulation and Finland ices the puck.

So the U S has the puck in the finish zone with 1.7 seconds left. And Nick was like, pull the goalie. And you know me, I love that move. Pull the goalie, pull the goalie. I was there for it. I wanted it. I wanted to see him try it. I mean, could you even imagine if Finland got the greatest flute play of all time and

somehow you lost the gold medal on a play like that? So Carl didn't do it. No guts, David, no guts, but you still got the glory. And when I kind of watched the US in overtime and they really dominated the OT, I bet you he's thinking, you know what, with the horses I've got here and you look at those guys, Buehme, Leonard, all those guys for Team USA, he's saying if I've got to do a three on three against Finland, I'm taking my chances there, which he was obviously right to do. But I kind of wanted to see him pull the goalie with

0. seven seconds left Well, you say horses by the way, did you see in the celebration afterwards? There's Z boy who looked like it felt like he never left the ice in over time I think he logged almost 20 minutes, but then he's he's celebrating. He's got his helmet off He looked like he had just walked through the dryer. There wasn't a lick of sweat on his hair on his head It was unbelievable. It just I know it's not effortless, but he sure made it seem that way. How did that guy fall the 13th? Another Denver product.

Another Denver guy. And if you're Washington, you have to be salivating at the idea of Ryan Leonard showing up for your playoff run this year. Yes, yes, you do. Speaking of other good young coaches that are in the NHL Spencer Carbary is having a heck of a season with the Caps. So congrats to the United States back to back champs and then Minnesota. I just shout out a cook. Yeah, Minnesota hoats next year, I want to shout out the Finnish goaltender, Rimpenen, because he made three incredible saves before they finally beat him in overtime.

He would have been an absolute hero if Finland won that game. And the word was on Sunday night after Team USA won, you know, when Latvia beat Canada, Murslikens from Columbus reached out and he took out and he sent the Latvians out for a big dinner. The word is that some of the American players on the Senators who were at the game were reaching out to take care of those Team USA guys. Doesn't surprise me with Brady Kachuk be in the ring leader of all of that. Not surprising in the least.

Alright, so another dramatic tournament there and somehow wasn't the most dramatic thing going on in the nation's capital over the weekend. We'll see where all that goes over the next couple of days. But your game on Sunday night, Elliott. The Leafs and the Flyers and actually that weekend for Toronto it was tough to see Jake McCabe first of all, Elliot, the way he went down there after getting tied up with Garnet Hathaway and down to the ice hard you knew he was in trouble right away. Craig Borubey didn't have any further update for him after the game. We

know he's already dealt with a head injury once this season with the puck that he took to the head down in Tampa Just over a month ago, but Austin Matthews first two games back. It's almost a little bit of a surprise We were both at the rink their Saturday morning before Boston Wasn't totally on the radar that that could be the game that he returns to the lineup He does look great that night looked effective again on Sunday. I mean to me That may be the most assertive we've seen Matthews, I don't know if this entire season, but certainly, you know, since he went out

with injury the first time back in November, what did you see from the Leafs captain over the weekend? I thought he was really good. I initially was surprised, as you said, that he would pick a back-to-back weekend, and that he would state so emphatically that he was going to play both games and that was his plan. But the more I looked into it, the more it made sense to me. I think he is determined to end this conversation once and for all. There was a quote of his during the week that got a lot of attention when he said, I'm not sure that this injury is going to get much better. And when you, as things unfolded and the more you kind of realized, um, how the

week went, the weekend went, it said to me that Matthew has just reached a point where he said, this is as good as it's going to be, I'm as strong as I'm going to feel, and I am going to try to end this conversation. I am going to prove I can play with it and I'm going to play every game. I'm not going to be a part-time player one on one off or two on one off, not play one end of back to backs. He was determined to show that he can play and you know if he can or something happens here, we'll play that as it comes.

But I think right now this is his way of trying to say, I'm here to end the debate about how healthy I am or I'm not. And whether or not there's any concern I should be able to play the Four Nations. This is his run. And I don't like to see injuries, so I hope it works out great for him. I want the Four Nations to be the best possible tournament, so I hope it works out great for him. I want the four nations to be the best possible tournament So I hope it works out great for him, and I like to see Canadian teams do well So I hope it works out great for him so This to me is Matthew saying I'm making my run to show that I'm healthy enough to play and I'm healthy enough to play A lot and the thing about the game on Saturday night, and you were there, and you can talk about what you saw

He was engaged physically. You know he's not necessarily a huge hitter like he's not scott stevens the 2025 Generation version of scott stevens, but he does physically get involved. Um, he he get he puts bodies on people He had a big hit on charlie mcavoy that led to a turnover and a goal. He was involved with his stick. He'd made the great diving play on the empty netter. So he was physically involved. He wasn't daintily tiptoeing around the ice. So I think that really says about what he's trying to do.

Anything happen interesting with you around the rink on Saturday? You know, that was just it was a good game to watch like the pace was great right off the the hop I mean, it's it's rare that Toronto versus Boston is not Must-see television here the last little while even go back further than that, of course with the the playoff history I mean Matthew Nyes was sensational and then opens the scoring against Philly on on Sunday too. It's neat like so his older brother Phil was in the crowd for it. I think he still had may have some family hanging around Toronto spillover from the the holiday break there but he's going to be his mentor for the mentors trip here and Phil lives in Boston

and so when they were playing in Boston back in October he was at that game and I scored then and then the hat-trick and five points on Saturday night against the Bruins but you know it was another compelling night I think against Boston. It's just been strange though with the Bruins though certainly like they've made improvements under Joe Sacco no question like they're in the mix in terms of the playoff picture for sure. But you look at their struggle to score as

time has gone on here. It's just been so bizarre to see and the power play, when you think about how for years they picked apart teams. And I know like Pittsburgh went through it a couple of years ago where, you know, constantly the class of the NHL and then it drops off and now we're seeing with Boston it's just it's it's strange the amount of metrics that they used to excel in for

a long long time and it's not defining them in the same way that it it it has for many years it's just just different to see. I just think that you know it catches up with teams eventually right? You eventually go, no matter what kind of elite players you have and Boston has some elite players. Look at Pittsburgh, they have the elite of the elite but it catches up with you eventually. Eventually you hit that cycle where you have to decide are we going to rebuild and tear down? You and I have talked a lot about the rebuild and the tear down and how hard they are. It dominated our podcast the last couple. Watching Chicago ever since the winter classic, they had the big win obviously over Montreal

and we'll talk about Montreal later, but they had a really dispiriting loss to the Rangers on Sunday afternoon. and we'll talk about Montreal later, but they had a really dispiriting loss to the Rangers on Sunday afternoon. I think Boston to me, rebuilding is not in their DNA. And I think this is a big picture conversation about them. They've been so good for so long. They've lost two Hall of Famers about them. They've been so good for so long. They've lost two Hall of Famers and Krayche who was not a Hall of Famer but a great great player and eventually that catches up to you. So I just look at them and I say I think Boston has to have some big-picture conversations and they lost again on Sunday night. I think the Bruins have to decide where they where they really Want to go

Fascinating here as we sit and record this on Sunday, Elliot You look at that Eastern Conference playoff picture there are Eight teams picture. There are eight teams when you go from Pittsburgh that currently occupies the second wild card spot them and seven below separated by four points. Yep. We got a race. I hope it stays this compelling the second half of the year. So Ottawa now does not have

Almark. And this is if you go back to training camp, this is the third time he's been out due to injury. And I know he said week to week, but it was more like he's not skating right now. So we'll just go with week to week. It was not a very positive update from Travis Green after their practice Sunday. Well, it was it was more like, you know, like I've dealt with green a lot and not for over the years to know, like, like, I like this, like, he'll tell me if I'm if I'm wrong about this. But he's kind of like, I have no idea that that he's basically

looking at everybody and saying he's not skating What do you want me to say? So I'll just go with week to week and you know There's that line that one of the worst feelings as a head coach is when you have to make a decision On who your goalie is going to be like when it's not for you when you know That's my guy and I'm going to sleep soundly at night. Well now you got to think about okay Who do I have and who do I trust or not? guy and I'm going to sleep soundly at night, but now you got to think about, okay, who do I have and who do I trust or not?

There's no more uncomfortable feeling, I think, in a lot of cases for head coaches and it's the reality for Green and company here and his staff for the next little while. See the, and the thing too, that's a challenge about this is that there's, you know, you're looking, you're saying, okay, if I need another goalie, where am I going to get them from? Okay. And now we've already had a couple of goalie trades. So you're wondering how many goalies are even available now. The second thing you're looking at is how many teams are still in the race that are not going to want to help you.

And the third thing you're looking at is a lot of these teams that are in the playoffs right now or around the playoffs right now. They're saying we need three guys. And that's the problem. You know, people, you know, people look at like, you know, someone was saying to me, what about Caden Primo and, you know, Caden Primo was on, was available on waivers last week. And, you know, he was playing very poorly and hopefully he can find his game back again in Laval. But all of a sudden Montreal's in this too. And I have no idea if this is going to last, but Montreal's probably

sitting there and saying, you know, Hey, we might need this guy. Montreal's in this too, and I have no idea if this is going to last, but Montreal's probably sitting there and saying, hey, we might need this guy. It's better for us if we sort it out as opposed to moving him unless they got another plan here, but everybody needs three goalies. You look and you see who's out there. Like, like, do you think John for what Anaheim has been asking for John Gibson? Like it's been a lot. Is Ottawa paying that price?

I don't think so. No, I don't think so either. And the other thing too, is you've already got Almark and he's in and out of injury. The biggest concern about Gibson who won his 200th career game on Sunday night is not his ability, it's the health. So your whole thing that you're trying to do right now is stabilize your net. Are you going to go get someone else who can't stay healthy? Right. But the thing about Gibson too, I mean, for how many years now in Anaheim

has he constantly just been caved in with the amount of zone time and shots that he faces on a nightly basis? Like, I wonder if you put him in a situation- Oh, he is dying for a chance to prove that. Right. He is dying for that opportunity. Dramatically reduce the likelihood of injury when you're in a bit of a different scenario that way Right. He is dying for that opportunity dramatically reduce the likelihood of of injury when you're in a bit of a

different scenario that way too. If you're Ottawa though, one thing I wonder about Elliot like you've got yourself back into the mix here like you're firmly in the race. Yeah, giving yourselves a chance here. So are you okay? accepting of the fact of another year of, well, we were right there, but injuries did us in. No, no, no. Or how far are you willing to push?

How far are you willing to push to- You have to look. Keep yourself here. You have to look, you have to try. But, you know, it's like everybody can see, everybody else can see what you're up to, right? Like to me, it comes down to what price are you willing to pay and who do you really think can help you? Are you taking a shot at

Dan Vlidar? Like that was one of the guys that jumped into my head, but Calgary's in the race. Yes, they are. That was one of the guys who jumped into my head. You know, Primo obvious, Gibson obvious. Vlidar was a guy I looked at, you know, they've got Wolf, they've got Cooley, but they're in the race. You know, San Jose, they've got a scarf playing more now. They've got Georgiev and Vanechek is hurt. Does anything there appeal to you? Right.

That's the other thing. You got to believe they can come in and do a job for you. Yes. Yes. Yes. You know, someone mentioned to me, Morazic, he's got another year at four something million. Yes. And then your extension with all marks kicking in. Yes. All of a sudden, you got 12 million in goal. So it's not,

All of a sudden you got 12 million in goal. So it's not, but it's not that easy, but the one thing, and I know you're an Ottawa guy, I agree with you on this completely. You need to reward your guys. Yeah. It's a tough challenge, tough spot for a GM to be. You bet.

Unless you think you can get through it and you know, you know, all Mark's health better than anyone. Your doctors are the ones seeing him. You know what the situation is. Do you think you can get by with Forsberg, Maryland for a few weeks? To me, that's always the most optimum thing. Solve your problem internally. And a big, big four pointer coming up Tuesday night in Detroit is what's next for Ottawa.

Suddenly, suddenly revived Detroit. Yeah. Is what's next for Ottawa. Suddenly suddenly revived Detroit. They got a pulse. They got a pulse. Got a pulse with Todd Larkin. Larkin had a really interesting interview with Sean Reynolds at the end of the game when they beat Winnipeg the other night. He talked about the second intermission against Toronto.

That was McClellan's first game. They got pounded, pounded. And, but they, they went out and they won the third period. They talked about, they went into that intermission and they talked about how, how badly they were getting killed. And they said, let's just win the third period. Let's just do something good. And they did. And they've been very good since then. Tell you something else, too. I had one guy reach out to me and said that the Red Wings veterans were wondering if they were intentionally slighted by Derek Lalonde

when he released a statement to us about the young kids in the future, that Detroit will get there because their young players are good and the young ones who are coming are good. And he asked me, do you think that Lallone was taking a shot at the Detroit veterans? And I said, no, he wasn't doing that. I think he was simply trying to make the fans feel good because he talked about the end of last season when Detroit had a bit of a run and how excited their fans were. And he talked about that. He was trying to make their fans feel good about the future.

And this guy said to me, he said, well, he may not have intended it that way, but that's the way some of those guys are taking it. And I said, you know what? You know what? Sometimes slights, whether real or imagined, are a powerful motivator. Just ask Michael Jordan. Yes. Even if, and I took that personally, even if they are imagined, doesn't mean they don't work.

I thought that was very interesting. By the way, when it comes to goalies, Kyle, a couple of podcasts ago, I mentioned how Washington they have the two UFA goalies, Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren. I mentioned that they want to keep both guys. And someone said to me, you could have been a bit more clear that that's about this season. In the future, Washington, I don't think they're going to be able to keep both guys. But I meant this season, but it was indicated to me that I didn't make it clear enough. So let me make sure I make it clear enough that Washington plans on keeping both of them

this year, and then we'll see what happens in the future. Something else that was interesting over the weekend, Elliot, can we talk about Frank Vetrano's extension? We sure can. By the way, you were the one who pointed out to me, California, you can't just go there and get six points in a tan anymore. The Devils and the Lightning, two teams that are having pretty good years in the East, both got skunked over the last few days. Zero points against the Sharks, the Kings, and the Ducks.

You know, there was a time there recently, well, the Kings have been pretty good the last couple of years, but there was a time there recently, you could go out to California, book a round of golf on an off day, hop on one of those scooters, get some ice cream, play three games.

Always. Six points. Those days are over. O-V-E-R. The one year I worked sidelines for Montreal, I think it had been forever since this had happened that there wasn't a back to back for them on that California trip. I remember we went in an extra day early. They played Anaheim on a Tuesday and two days off before playing in San Jose on a Friday night and then a day off Saturday and an afternoon game in L.A.

on Sunday. Man, that was a long trip. It was carnage. I'll just say that. It was carnage for you or the players? I can't speak for the players. I think they got one win there, but it was carnage for the production crew. Now I have to say this, carnage for Kyle is very different than carnage for most people. I'm not saying that you're like a loser. Well, you're not like a loser or anything like that, but you're not, you're not irresponsible.

No, but I was a little bit younger then than I am now. Okay. It was a great time. It was a good time. Met Paul Correa that drift. That's, that'll be the ultimate highlight of that one. Okay, Frank Fiorano Elliot So a three-year 18 million dollar deal Nine million of that will be paid over the three years of the contract the remaining nine million to be paid over ten years Starting a decade from now 2035 now we've seen some contracts the last little while that has involved deferred money.

Look at Jacob Slavin, Seth Jarvis, Jacob Cave of the Maple Leafs. But this Vetrano one is a little bit different because it's looking at deferred salary as opposed to the bonus money. I don't know how many of the weeds we want to get here for each, but if you could explain to our audience what this all looks like for

Vetrano and the Ducks and why this was an option they chose to go with. Okay, so let's divide it into two parts. First of all, the fact that it got approved and how it works, and secondly, is it a good idea? Do you like that? Is that a good plan? That's a good place to start. Okay. So this had been going on for some time. The word last summer was that Vatrano was going to stay. Like Vatrano was in a lot of trade rumors, especially last year around the deadline. And during the summer, they went out and they took some big swings. They swung at Stamp Coast, they swung at Marshisoe. They were really disappointed they didn't get Marshisoe. I started to wonder about Vetrano because he was going into the last year of his deal

and people were saying, I think I mentioned it at one point, people were saying, Vetrano is going to stay. He wants to stay. And they'd been talking for some time. And I'm not exactly, I don't know if rejected is the right word, but it took a bit of time before the NHL was comfortable enough with the language to approve the deal. Like every contract has to be approved by the National Hockey League and their central registry.

And I think it finally got approved, I want to say Saturday. So ultimately, they got to a place where the NHL said, yes, we are willing to do that. And I want to say this, I do believe as part of the upcoming CBA negotiations, there's going to be some conversation about this and does everybody want this to continue. But at the end of the day, the NHL approved the contract as you described it. The thing that's interesting about it is you asked me on Sunday in one of our conversations, does it count against the cap? Does the $900,000 for 10 years starting in 2035, does it count against the cap? And I'm told the answer is no. However, it does come out of the player's share of revenue.

So for people who are wondering about that, as you know, the revenues are supposed to be split 50-50, the $900,000 per year that is paid to Vitrano from, hopefully, there'll be, let's just say they're $8 billion. $900,000 of $4 billion is not a big deal. But that is the way I understand it works. But it does not count against the cap from what I understand, Kyle. So that's the technical jargon of all of this. Now, the second part of the equation becomes, is this a good idea? And before I answer that question, I want to put a few variables in people's heads. Number one, and this is the most important part, and Ducks fans heard this from Vetrano after they beat Tampa Bay on Sunday night.

He wanted to stay in Anaheim. He didn't want to be traded. He didn't want to go play anywhere else. He really likes it in Anaheim. His family really likes it in Anaheim. And that leads to two very important sayings. Number one, don't bleep with happy. And number two, and we all know this,

happy wife, happy life, right? Yes. So, Vetrano- Two goals in day two. Yes, he scored twice. So, Vetrano wanted to stay. I think also, this might have been a bit of a different conversation if this happened a year ago.

So in 2022-23, he scored 22 goals. Last year, he scored 37. And as you mentioned, he scored two goals on Sunday night. He's now got 11 in 38 games, but his production is down. You always wonder, is his production is down. Now you always wonder is his production down because he's nervous, he's thinking about the contract and he wants to get this over with. Well now we have an opportunity to find out

and the immediate result was it sure looked that way. But his production was down. Vatrana will be 31 years old in March. And if you're a 31 year old going on the open market and let's just say he was at his current pace which was probably going to be around 20, you know people are going to look at it and say, oh he went from 37 down to 20, he's 31 years old. What do we got here exactly? As you know there would have been teams who would have been like, not so sure about this.

I'm not really sure I want to throw money at that. It's not as secure a market as other free agents, especially ones who are younger, would have. And I think Vetrano and his agents, Peter Fish and Peter Donatelli, who know Vetrano really wants to stay, they look at this whole market and situation and they can see the same things I'm talking about here. So even though it's 18 million over three years because of the deferred money, the cap hit comes in at three years, 4.57 million AAV. And I would be curious and people who listen to this podcast can tell me what they think. I would bet if Vetrano went on the open market, three times 4.57 would probably be his value.

Now maybe there's somebody out there and especially after a season where he might be down to 20 goals from 37 because everybody will look at that and they'll say, oh, he's down 17 goals. Don't want to risk that too much. So I think if you just look at the contract itself Especially since it's where he wants to stay. I don't think anybody would have a huge issue with it The question becomes about the deferred money. Is that a good idea? So the first question I have is if If you think it's a bad idea

if If if you think it's a bad idea If he doesn't defer it and say he asked for three times six Is he getting that on the open market now? Maybe somebody else out there will convince me. It's true I'm not so sure so that's why I think Vetrano in his particular case is It makes sense for him. Now there's always a debate what's more valuable money now or money later. There's a lot of people out there and I generally tend to feel the same way who feel that money now makes more sense because you can invest it. There are others like Bobby Bonilla who is still being paid by the New York Mets, who feels

that deferred money was perfect for him. I mean, it depends on the situation. But one thing that's very clear here is that, well, so it's funny, I called it an O'Tany S contract and people like jumped all over me, which is fine. Like I can laugh at all that stuff. It's just that if you want to try to explain it to the most people in the easiest possible way, Otani is the best use of it. Like you know what?

This may surprise you, but I do recognize that the Toronto is not a $700 million player nor comparable as a hockey version to what Otani is in baseball. It's just that that's, you know, that's the comparison you make. It's the easiest one. I saw even Verbeek used it on on Sunday night. Now, you know, I think so. It's a question now. Do you value money more or later?

Do you believe in deferred money? I think Anaheim did just because to me, what this says is that Pat Verbeek has not given up on the idea of taking big swings. He wants the ability to take big swings. And one thing we're learning right now is that with the cap going up and with Leon Dreisettle's contract resetting the bar, and that certainly happened with Mico Rantin in Colorado, then we're in a situation here where even though the ducks have a lot of flexibility, you know, it can never hurt to have more.

And this says to me that Verbeek still wants the ability to take big swings. Now I had a few people tell me that they think that the Ohtani, and they sent me some articles where the Ohtani deal has become such a controversial thing in California that they think ultimately they're either going to change the law or they're going to chase after this money anyway. I don't know. I mean, in terms of taxes. Yes, in the future. I don't know. I mean governments, they could do anything. I really am not an expert on that, although I did read some articles about it. I just think at the end of the day, about it. I just think at the end of the day, Frank Vetrano wanted to stay in Anaheim and that was his market and to make it work a little bit better for Anaheim, he agreed to do it.

And he'll take the money later. He's still getting a big chunk of money up front and because he's happy where he is, he'll deal with the annuity as it is later. I mean, look, at the end of the day, if the client's happy, you do what the client wants, right? Soterios Johnson Absolutely. And I think I'm sure naturally there'll be fans out there who are going, well, hold on. Makes sense for the team because you save a little bit in cap space during the term of the deal, the player still gets his money, the full amount of the contract, what it's worth, even though it comes a little bit later. So why can't that work for my favorite player on my favorite team or the top player on my

favorite team? Going back to your earlier point, a lot of cases, especially for guys that have the chance to make big, big bucks coming into the primes of their years. Money now is worth more than money later, which I think a lot of money managers would recommend. It just, every now and then you have a situation like Vitrano where this setup works for a certain player. I agree with you like

the big big studs they're probably not gonna do this. We'll see if it's a part of the CBA going forward. Yes but again I think the key is I think you only think this is a bad deal for Vitrano if you think you really left money on the table and I don't sense that. Yeah, that's a really good way of looking at it. All right, well, keeping with the conversation of contracts here quickly, Elliot, you mentioned not too long ago you could see a path where Ty Emberson, one of those players on a one-year deal, the window's now open for him to re-sign. There could be a path to a new deal with

him and the Oilers. Another name you wanted to mention Eric Robinson in the Carolina Hurricanes. He's on a one-year deal nine goals already this year. He's another name to look out for? I've always liked Eric Robinson's game. You know obviously he's not someone who has gotten a lot of attention in years past. But whenever I've watched him, I've always liked him. And you know, you always take a look at a player, you know, he had a 10-goal season a few years ago, then he had a 12-goal season, and then things just hadn't worked out for him. He was in Buffalo for a chunk of last year. But you always look at a guy like that,

the Carolina Signs, and as you mentioned, he's a half a point of last year. But you always look at a guy like that, that Carolina signs. And as you mentioned, he's got, he's a half a point of game player. He's got 20 points and 40 games. And someone, someone heard me talking about it on the podcast on, on Friday. And they said, you should or whichever day we talked about it last week, all the days blend together and they said, you should mention Eric Robinson of Carolina because obviously they like him. He's a Brenda Moore kind of guy. And nobody will be surprised if the hurricanes extend him.

Can we just mention too, Elliot, before we get to the final thought? I mean, timing is a funny thing, isn't it? So last week we had Jake Neighbors on when we were in Chicago. He talked about his great friendship he's got with Ozzy Weisblatt and that incredible story that he told about getting bad info from Ozzy when he tried to speak to Ozzy's mom through sign language and the hilarity that ensued then. A few days later, Ozzy gets called up for his NHL debut with Nashville in Vancouver. The great scene with Mom Kim was along the glass there at warmups. Second game was in his hometown of Calgary. Predators

win both of those outings. I mean, you reshared the wonderful feature that the hometown hockey crew did on Kim White and the Wiseblad kids a number of years ago. But how neat was that seeing him get called up with Nashville and What kind of a moment that was for the whole family? Well, it was really beautiful and I wanted to shout out the producer of that piece Mark McDonald. He he was the one who produced it and He did you know, it's a real as you can imagine. He's really proud of that piece. So to see it come back, it's really, I'm happy for Mark. Because back in the hometown hockey days, they did a lot of unbelievable

features. And you know, the features in hockey are kind of dying right now, which I don't believe is a good thing. I think good storytelling, it's so important, but it's expensive. And in these days of cutbacks, you know, unfortunately, features are one of the big things to go. So you go to all this expense and the feature maybe airs once or twice. It's nice to see it get sort of a new life as Wise Black makes the NHL. But it was a fantastic weekend. we got the puck from the Predators because they won the game in Vancouver's NHL debut and then they win again. One thing that's pretty interesting here is it looks like some of these young players that have gotten called up and have gotten chances this year have breathed new life into

the Predators roster. And boy, did they need it. Absolutely did they need it. Okay, that takes us to the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC and Elliot, we've gone this long. We should probably talk about the Vancouver Canucks. Not surprisingly, there's the groan. It was your lead item on headlines with Rob McClain over the weekend. The drama continuing. What's going to happen? What could the options be going forward as they try to sort out Miller and Pederson and try to get this team back on the right track? Now we should mention Pederson and Hughes both practice in Montreal on Sunday. They were on the ice there. But I'm curious, Elliot, what was the best

text or message or comment you got after what you said on Saturday and did the winner belong to Kevin Biaxa? I think it was either again or it was please shut up already. It was probably one of those two. With a few extra words mixed in. Yeah, BX, you know, BX, it was pretty funny too after the segment on Saturday. Kyle, you have heard me on this podcast and anyone who's listened to me on this podcast has heard me say it before that before Sportsnet fires me someday I want to cover a Canadian team winning the Stanley Cup

I've never done it I don't care which team it is I would like to see them win a Stanley Cup and return and at least once to the north of the 49th parallel Edmonton can win the Stanley. Toronto was intriguing to me. I like the way they've played this year. I think the East after Florida is wide open, but I haven't discounted the possibility they could. But last year as the Canucks went on the rise and went to the second round,

I looked at a team with three cornerstones of Hughes, Miller and Pedersen. Great complementary players, Besser, Garland, Ronick. Demko's health is a thing, of Hughes, Miller and Patterson, great complimentary players, Besser, Garland, Ronek, Demko's health is a thing of course, but just in general, I saw a team that was capable of winning the Stanley Cup. I really believed it and I said it, I said it on this podcast. And you know, who knows where this is going to go here, but if it does get broken up, if I was a member

of the organization, player, coach, executive, you name it, I would be disappointed. And you know, my father told me when I was younger, there were obviously in school, there's people you don't like. And he said to me, okay, you don't have to like them in high school. But you know, what happens when you're going to be at work and there's someone you have to work with and you don't have to like them in high school. But what happens when you're going to be at work and there's someone you have to work with and you don't like them? Are you going to quit?

Are you going to let it fall apart? Or are you going to try to pull it together and be successful? And I always remembered that. And I recognize there's some people here who've really tried to make it work. And right now, it doesn't look like it's gonna work And it's really stressed everybody out there But all I know is as I said many times I can only judge others as I judge myself

but I Believe that if it was me and I was involved in the middle of this I would look at a team that was capable of winning the Stanley Cup and if it had to be split up, I would say I have failed and I know that There have been times at work in my various television or media jobs. Not everybody's gotten along very well and There are times like right now where everybody gets along really well but in the past where people haven't gotten along very well and while I don't consider myself very

much of a leader I always felt that it was my job to do the best I could no matter how I felt about any particular people to put on the best possible show. And I felt that I failed if that didn't happen. So who knows where this is going to go. But I would say right now that if this can not team gets broken up, and I was part of it, I would say, I feel like I failed at this. Because I really think if this team stays together, it is a chance to win the Stanley Cup. And that would bother me a ton.

It would drive me crazy. Right, especially because this whole ordeal, it transcends hockey. So your point, as your father would have said to you, this is everyday life when you are put in situations where you're having to work with, deal with people that may not be the most favorite people in your life, in your world, and how are you going to make it all work?

And yeah, it'd be easier to stomach if this team was on a path to nowhere, but we all saw how close they were, how far they pushed Edmonton less than a year ago. And especially when you look at the journey it's been for that organization to get back to a situation where you say, okay, they've got a group that's that's capable of doing something of real significance here. So all of that just that disappointing is the perfect word to sum it up. And I'll never know like what's really going on behind closed doors there and maybe something did in fact happen that is irreparable and a trade or whatever the ultimate solution here was the only path forward. It really is too bad that it's gotten to this point. Like I'm flabbergasted that this is, it was one thing to talk about, yeah these guys they don't love each other their personalities don't exactly mesh yeah okay they really can't find a way past this man there's got to be a sense of who will live to regret it how

many years down the road from now all right we'll leave it there for now that was the final thought brought to you by GMC. We will take our first break and come back with The Thought Line. You're listening to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. All right, welcome back. Time now for the Thought Line once again. Elliot, I got one text message from our colleague Jason Murdoch, who's been part of the Hockey Night family for many, many, many years now. He said he had a big smile on his face when I dropped the line, Elliot Friedman on horseback,

the last Thought Line in setting you up for the Shane Doane answer. We never really discussed the meaning behind that. Could you let the listeners in to what that all meant? Yeah, I did a piece years ago where I went to Shane Doane's ranch in Arizona and you know he asked me if you ever ridden horses before and I have. I'm not like I'm good at it, but I did. I went to a horseback riding camp at Seneca College when I was young, probably about eight or nine years old, two weeks. Seneca College had great summer sports camps.

They did hockey, they did tennis, they did baseball and they also did horseback riding and I did horseback riding for two weeks. It was, you know, it's not for me really, but I liked it. But I wasn't any good at it. And I, so I went to Shane Doane's place and you know, for a guy who hadn't been on horse and I don't know what year would that have been. I was probably about, I was probably 30 something years old. It went as you would expect. I was, you know, especially like Ron's like a cowboy. So he really thought it was hilarious. And PJ thinks everything's hilarious. And I remember at the end of the night, when we were doing highlights, PJ said, I don't want to show any more highlights. I just want to show Elliot on the horse again. He ran the highlights of me on the horse. It goes as you would expect me on a horse.

And whenever George Paros sees me, he says, hey cowboy, how you doing? So it's- No way. Oh yeah. It lives on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don laughs about it too, but it's George Paros who always says, hey cowboy. And it always takes me half a second at the beginning. Sorry, it took me half a second to realize what he was referring to.

But now obviously I know only when Perros is mad about something I've said or done, does he not call me cowboy. Yeah, I remember a few years back we had a Saturday night in Arizona and we scrounged that footage up. I believe it was at the end of the second period. That was our visuals to set up your Saturday headline segment as we went to commercial break.

Which was just fantastic. That was pretty funny. Yeah. It was funny. I mean, look, like it was a, you wanted to get the feature done. It was a good feature. What would it take? I would say this. I have lines that I won't go past.

There was an event I did, I'm not going to say who it was, but there was a celebrity and I was going to do a segment with them at an awards ceremony. And they were going to embarrass me beyond the line. And I just said, no, we're not doing this. And they complained about me to the people hosting the awards. They complained about me to the place I worked at the time. And they complained about me to their manager. And all these people came to me and said, you're going to do it.

And I said, no, I'm not. I said, you guys can do whatever and I said no, I'm not I said You guys can do whatever you want, but there is a line I'll and you know, you've seen me you've worked with me Like I will allow myself to get made fun of here time to time like it's part of the act, right? It's part of the shtick, but I always believe there's a line and That was one time where I said we're not going to that line and they basically said if you don't do this I will that will take you off the show and I said that's fine you you do what you do you think is right if you don't want me here it's your show. I said to me later that they never met anybody who said it's your show you can do what you want. who said it's your show, you can do what you want. And because they thought that usually worked.

But I just think I tell everybody this. You should be you should allow people to make fun of you to some point. You should be able to give if you're going to dish it out. You got to be able to take it and but like there has to be a line where you say I don't care who you are. You're not pushing me past that line. And and that was one case where someone was going to push me past that line. And they were, they're a pretty powerful person at the time. And I just said, I don't care. No. Well, I'll give you credit because you are a very good sport when it comes to these things. So if

you're digging your heels on something, then I know it's serious for you. So that's fair. All right we begin today's thought line. We've got a couple submissions just asking about the hypothetical Jonathan Taves return story here so here's one of the questions from Colton. Hi guys, long-time listener, first-time writer here. With the recent news surrounding Jonathan Taves I am left confused on when the deadline to sign free agents is. I had always thought it was December the 1st, potentially because of the William Nylander negotiation all those years ago,

but I recall recent news about free agents, the likes of Phil Kessel, and now TAVE's potentially wanting to return and there's talk about them being eligible to do so as long as they sign prior to the trade deadline. So my question is when exactly is the deadline for a free agent to sign with the team and can they still sign after that deadline to be able to play in the regular season, just not in the playoffs? Colton, uh, that is a great question. And, uh, I understand your confusion. The December 1st deadline for players like Nylander a couple of years ago is

for restricted free agents who have not signed a contract. So if you're a restricted free agent like Nylander was back then, and you don't sign by December 1st, you cannot play that season. So that's what that deadline is for a restricted free agent who has not signed anywhere. Simple enough.

For unrestricted free agents like a Kessel or a Taves, to be eligible you have to sign by the trade deadline. So those players have a bit more time and a bit more flexibility. After the trade deadline, there can be acquisitions. Like, for example, one thing that happens at the trade deadline is that the roster limit goes away. As long as you're under the cap, right now the roster limit is 23. As long as you're under the cap, you can have 30 players up there if you wanted to. But you only get four call-ups after the trade deadline. So that's the way it works. It's a little bit different. The

trade deadline does bring in some changes to the rules. But if you're an unrestricted free agent or a trade, you actually can be traded after the trade deadline, but you can't play until the next season. Very good. Okay, Stephen Abbotsford. This is kind of an interesting one. Hello, Kyle and Elliott, longtime listener. Love watching you on TV.

I must be talking about you. Watching the Canucks-Seattle game the other night night there was a lot of conversation about Kevin Lankanen coming in cold for Thatcher Demko after Demko got injured. With this issue as common as it is I was wondering is there an NHL rule where the backup goalie has to be sitting on the bench during a game? Has the league or any team ever thought about building a small chunk of fake ice in the tunnels somewhere so the backup could get light reps with a coach or a player during a game to stay warm similar to pitchers in baseball why has this never happened I can't be the only one that has had this thought keep up the great work and thank you in advance

it's interesting he asks this because it's a good question there's a new rule this year Elliot as you know now when a goalie comes into the game because of injury, he is allowed a brief warm up on the ice, which didn't used to be the case. The league now allows for that. But the idea of some artificial ice underneath the bow down in the bowels of the arena, that could be kind of I love the thought the visual of that. Can you imagine? That could be kind of, I love the thought, the visual of that, can you imagine? Yeah, I mean, it's a great idea. I've never thought of it. Maybe somebody will hear this and they will do it.

Right, because there is, he was asking, there's no rule that the backup goalie has to be on the bench. It's just kind of a thing where you want to be with your teammates and of course, some buildings, Montreal, Winnipeg, even Toronto on the visitors bench, right? They, they got to be elsewhere, uh, in a different hallway or across the ice.

They not enough room on the bench, but yeah, I'm just picturing that now of, well, there's you call it the goalie den, there's Anton Forsberg getting warm in the goalie den. If this continues to go south for Ottawa, we may see him in this one tonight. I think it's actually a really interesting idea. Thank you for that one, Steve. All right, Nick from Kingsville, Ontario.

Kyle and Elliot. The halfway mark of the season is upon us and overall goal scoring is down across the league this year. I appreciate there are many factors that play into this but I can't help but wonder if successful coaches challenges have played a major role in this, specifically offside ones. As I watch a game I'm often delaying my post goal excitement until only after the puck gets dropped again at center ice signaling that the play won't be challenged so I'm wondering how many goals have been called back this year as a result of coaches challenges

and how that might compare to past years sincerely a lifelong hockey fan who misses the immediate feeling of joy in response to a goal that's kind of sweet so to answer this sounds like one that you've done research on. Yes. Well, the good people at SportsnetStats specifically. Yes. 51 offside challenges so far this year. We're taping this on Sunday afternoon, by the way. 44 of them have been overturned. That's over 86%.

7 have been upheld. And they sent me the info of like season by season since this came into effect back in 2015 Elliot and it's interesting like just the way first off the amount of challenges they've gone up more the last few years I don't know if that's I mean the technology in large part has always kind of been there since this rules been in effect I don't know if it's, I mean the technology in large part has always kind of been there since this rule's been in effect. I don't know if it's maybe linesmen when it's close, they tend to just let it go, err on the side of wash it out and if it's offside it'll be challenged. But if you look at

Hmm. But if you look at the first season, there were 88 challenges total. Only less than 40% of them were overturned. Hmm. And now you've got, I mean we're already over 50, and the success rate is almost 85%. It was 85% last year. Two years ago was almost 90, 87.4% the year before that. Last season there were 121 offside challenges in total, which is the most there's ever been yet. This year is tracking a little bit less than that, but it does have an impact. I agree with the writer that it's gotten to be too much and I'm a pro replay guy. I'm pro get the call right, but I am getting to the point, I've actually kind of gotten to the point

where it is too much. I know there were some people the other day at the world junior, the semi-final. I couldn't watch the semi-finals that closely because I was preparing for HNIC on Saturday, but I guess there was one review that people were like, this is way, way, way too much, too much. And I think a lot of us are beginning to feel that way. And I've had a few ideas and solutions that I've put out here and there. I wrote one, I wrote a column about it a couple of weeks ago. Um, but I, you know, I, I just wonder if, I just wonder if teams are getting better and better at it.

I do think the video coaches really study hard as to what they think they've got a chance with and what they don't think they have a chance with. Um, I know there's a lot of people out there who complain that it's too inconsistent and it's too hard to figure out, but I do think for the most part, not always, because there are times I get confused, but for the most part, there is a rhyme or a reason to this. If you really, really study it and the video coaches have become really really good at figuring it out. I heavily agree with our colleague Ken Daniels where his idea is that how come the outside edge of the blue line

you can use that for determining whether the puck leaves the zone but why can't that be the defining factor when getting the puck into the zone? And if it was, I think you would see far less situations where you're looking at an off-site challenge, thus less time spent looking at replay angles over and over again and less goals being taken off the board. All right, we'll wrap with this one from Dan. Hey Elliot, Kyle and Dom. Happy New Year.

Thank you, Dan. Same to you. Just listen to the last pod. Elliot mentioned that Brendan Shanahan wore the same shoulder pads his entire career. This is a common myth and I know because I asked him about it myself. He goes on to say I worked at Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers in New York from 2006 to 2011. Shanahan was skating there a bunch by himself before he retired. I was in the

youth hockey office when he came in to take his skates off, as in it was just us. Being a gear geek, I asked him about his shoulder pads. He said it was actually his second pair. When he got to New York, their equipment manager had a brand new pair of Sherwood 5030s and asked him if he wanted them. So he had the first pair of 5030s from 1986 to 2006 and a second pair from 2006 onwards. It was amazing to have five minutes or so with a legend who was so open to some random kid picking his brain about his equipment. So 2006 was basically the end of his career, right? He played four seasons coming out of the lockout.

Oh, he played that many. Yeah. But 2006 was when he came to New York. He played two with the Rangers and then one final one with the Devils. Hmm. So the part of his career would have been with the original pair.

Yes. That's good intel. I would simply say that this is not the first time nor the last time I will give out incorrect information on this podcast, but I appreciate the correction. No, and I think too, it wasn't about saying that you were incorrect per se, because the bulk of his time was with the same pair of 50 30s. And you could see it whenever you saw him walking around without a jersey on. I will say this, the last time I saw them

and I don't remember what year it was it was the old pair right because he was talking about how long he had them yeah it's a good anecdote Dan we appreciate you sending that yeah great anecdote and you know what it's always nice to hear about a good interaction between player and interested fan. Absolutely. 1-833-311-3232 is the phone number to call if you'd like to leave a voicemail or you can send an email at 32thoughtsat.sportsnet.ca. Back to conclude this episode of 32 Thoughts on the other side of the break. Stay tuned. it.

Okay, welcome back. Elliot, if I was to tell you a couple of weeks ago, the Montreal Canadians were going out on a road trip. They were going to play back-to-back games in Florida. Then they were going to travel out three time zones into Vegas. out on a road trip. They were going to play back to back games in Florida. Then they were going to travel out three time zones into Vegas. And then they were going to play back to back first in Chicago and then travel into another time zone to Denver at altitude and tell you they were only going to lose one of those five games. Which game would you have picked as the scheduled loss? What a road trip, eh? They beat the last four Stanley Cup champions and they lose to the Blackhawks. They played in four different time zones.

What a great trip. What a great trip for Montreal. What's interesting about it? I think if there's one thing, look, you can talk about the Canadians up and down, up and down, whatever you want. I think if there's one thing that's concerned them or bothered them as much as anything else, it's that some of their war schemes have been at home. The old Gord-Stelick line, if you're going to stink, stink on the road. So I bet I have no doubt that they're coming home and they, there's a big one on Monday night, they play Vancouver and you know, they're going to be excited there because of this road trip they had in there, they've put himself at least in the race and I guarantee that some of the management is sitting there thinking,

let's save some of this magic for the Bell Center. Let's give our fans a gift. Don't let this slide off the cliff now. Give us something to cheer for at home. And if they do that, everybody there is going to be happy. Happy, happy, happy. When we talked about them at length early November, there were nights where, I mean, there were some bad ones at home, but also too, where third periods would come and it was a bit of a crumble show.

You're seeing the exact opposite of that now. There's nights where you wouldn't fault them for coming up a little bit short and they're digging in at times where they don't have their fully healthy lineup and still finding a way to get results. That Colorado one over the weekend to grind that one out, incredibly impressive to say nothing of the other results they got over the course of this road trip. So yeah, 10 of 15 games doesn't make a whole season,

but they're giving themselves a chance here, which is- Well, I think there's a couple of things. There's a couple of things. Number one, they didn't trust Primo, unfortunately, at the end. And look, that's not a huge revelation. He wasn't playing. No matter what you say, actions speak, right?

And hopefully, Primo down in Laval sorts it out, figures it back out, and resumes his career in the NHL. But this Dobish, so one of the things I heard they were talking about with him is it was only a matter of time until they got an opportunity, but they didn't want him sitting around at the NHL level. So it became a conversation of about, you know, when do we bring him up and how do we manage him in terms of, you know, he's not sitting for a long time while Montembeau plays. Well now he's given you a couple of starts and he looks dynamite. He looked fantastic in the shootout the other night against Colorado.

Like, those are good players obviously. And he made that huge save on Lekkinen after Lekkinen came out of the penalty box. So you have two goalies now you trust and Montembeau can actually get rest. So that is a big difference. But the other thing, even though we didn't play because he's been battling the flu lately, the thing that Leinie can do better than almost anybody else is he can score. And you can argue he's one dimensional or you can argue he's one-dimensional or you can argue whatever you want, but the fact is he can score and he the easiest place to score is on the power play and all of a sudden their power play was lethal Because he was out there. So you're you're stopping goals and you've got another weapon that's giving you goals

those are the two fastest ways to turn your team around and his arrival or return and Dobish just allowing them to rest Montembeau and get good games when he wasn't playing gave him a lift. They're a different team right now. Now eventually Dobish will hit a wall and we'll see how he adjusts to when shooters start to figure him out a bit and he goes through his first struggles. But you can see why this team is excited by him. My final thought on this is, is this not the grizzled Martin St.

Louis effect having any type of impact here? Have you seen them on the bench the last little while the scruff that's come in now? I don't know if it's tied to any winning streak per se, but it seems like as they've starting to get hot, all of a sudden the facial hair is more prominent on what was always a clean cut St. Louis prior to this last little bit. Well, I generally feel that shaving is for losers. I only shave because I have to. I think that, I think the rugged look of Scroff or a good beard is the way men are supposed to be.

And the men are rolling in Montreal. By the way, I should mention Carrier too. I didn't mention him. That was a great trade for them I that that's another thing that that really helped. He's he's a good player and That was a great trade for the Canadians a great trade for them So they got a big one at home on a national Stage Monday night against Vancouver. This is a heck of a week for the Canucks, Freage, because then they also play on Scotia Bank

Wednesday night hockey this week, another national audience in Washington, 730 Eastern, 430 Pacific. They go into Carolina Friday night, and then Saturday they come to Toronto on hockey night in Canada. And then they go to Winnipeg. So plenty of viewing opportunities. And then Winnipeg. So plenty of viewing opportunities.

And then Winnipeg after that. Yes. So plenty of eyeballs, plenty of interest on the Canucks and easy access to watching their games here this week. Should also point out too, for those interested, Tuesday night, the Oilers are in Boston. They've just kicked off a long road trip. Also be seen on Sportsnet One for those interested.

Seven o'clock Eastern, five o'clock Mountain Time. That'll do it for this edition of 32 Thoughts for Each. Great work, Kyle. Pleasure again chatting with you and thank you all. There's only so many hours in a day and we appreciate you spending a few of yours here with us. We'll talk to you again on Friday.