32 Thoughts: The Podcast - There's A Lot Going On

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

Canucks lose again. Penguins for sale. New arena on the Island. Jeff and Elliotte cover off a lot of stories including another tough loss for Vancouver (00:01), if there’s something going between Kevin Fiala and the Wild (6:30), they provide an update on the Omaha Lancers situation (10:00), Fenway Sports Group showing interest in purchasing the Pittsburgh Penguins and how they inquired about a possible merger with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (16:00), if the talks of a second team in Quebec is a conversation we should be taking seriously (22:30), Islanders open their new arena but are hit by heavy COVID protocol (28:30) and they take your questions and voicemails (37:00).Find the full transcript for this episode hereMusic Outro: M. H. Vernon - WhatchyaListen to his EP “Feel The Urgency” hereThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: AM 970 WFLA, Sportsnet 960 and Toronto Marlies.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

It's from an actual conversation I overheard once at a restaurant. Hey, listen, I don't want to sound condescending. Do you know what condescending means, by the way? Welcome once again, everybody, to 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. As always, yours truly, Jeff Merrick, Elliot Friedman, and Amel Delic. And Elliot, as we record this on Sunday evening, the Vancouver Canucks have lost a hockey game,

won nothing at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks. What's the latest on Vancouver? It feels like we're going very much game by game with this thing. I'm just looking at my phone. We're recording this just after the Canucks game finished, and I've got an angry text from a friend of mine in Vancouver because he said to me earlier today, what's your prediction on the Canucks

tonight you know Chicago 22-hour turnaround you know he says I'm feeling good about this one and I said you out shoot them a thousand to six and Fleury makes a thousand saves yeah and he's cursing me right now there is a steady stream like there's words i've never even heard of i think it's swearing in other languages that's coming at me right now i like that they played well enough to win they lost flurry was unbelievable it's one of those games that you lose when the season is going the way it's going. But right now for Vancouver, there's no moral victories, Jeff. The moral victories are gone. And, you know, the tension is really high.

And, you know, we talked a lot about them, you know, for Friday's podcast. And now here we are talking about them for Monday's podcast. And, you know, the one thing I was talking about with someone there on the weekend is you can really feel it in the organization. You know, sometimes your organization is really tense because of everything you're going through. It's like that with the Canucks right now. Everybody's looking around, everybody else saying, okay, you know, we're waiting for something to happen. Is it going to be an executive? Is it going to be a coach? Is it going to be a player? You know, who's it going to be?

And the other thing that happens is, is that, you know, factions develop. People are like, well, I think that person's safe, so I'm going to kind of align with them. Or I think that person has the proper ear, so I'm going to align with them. And there's definitely a lot of that going on. You've got agents calling the team to figure out, you know, what's with the players, you know, who's getting moved, who were they shopping, if anyone, you know, the one thing I did hear from a couple other teams is, I mean, Jeff, you know how it is when, when you're going through this, the vultures are circling, like the sharks smell blood in the water, every other tortured metaphor i can pull out

here and you know a couple teams did say to me you could tell vancouver's trying to be careful they really are aware that this is the time you make the deal that hurts you for a decade so you don't want to do that but you just can't help but feel that something is coming there over the next little while and everybody is kind of waiting to see what's that first move going to be but the sense I really get around the organization is that does everybody jump into the rowboat together is everybody kind of together there's are people sitting there and saying oh boy I gotta protect got to protect myself. I've got to align with this person. It certainly feels like B. It certainly feels that people are looking around saying, what's my best route for surviving this? So this sounds like Game of Thrones.

So that's always healthy. That's actually what I was thinking about, but I just think that's the way it is like everybody feels something there is coming the ownership met last week they're sitting here going we didn't expect this we didn't think we would have this as a problem but if it doesn't turn around you know what are we going to do that's kind of the question they're asking and look at it right now they they lost to Colorado they beat Winnipeg now they've lost to Chicago I get a general sense around the league right now that I don't know if people are necessarily in trouble but I think there's more than one team out there

that's starting to say okay what are we going to do here? What could we do here? What's one of the things that Mike Ford said to us on our podcast? Always have the next person in mind, even if you're not hiring the next person. Yes. Like my ego is not that large that I think that this might be happening because Mike Ford said it on our podcast. You know, I'm not that much in love with myself. I am.

I'll take that. He said it on our podcast. Jeff is really in love with himself. I'm not that much in love with myself. But just one of the things that came out of that conversation we had was that someone was telling me there's a bit of that going on in the league right now. If we have to make a change, and I don'tcouver's the only team is what i'm saying if we have to make a change what are we gonna do but you know they they played hard they should have won flurry beat them you know the tough thing is there's just no moral victories right now you know it's always tough

too when you're um when you're scared to make a move because you don't want to lose the deal. That makes it really hard to do anything, doesn't it? I mean, you're really frozen. We've seen this before with general management. I actually think that's better than the alternative. No, I know you don't want to rush anything too, but then if you want to do something to try to fix it, but your only concern is,

ah, I don't want to do this because I don't want to get roasted and I don't want to do something to try to fix it, but your only concern is, ah, I don't want to do this because I don't want to get roasted and I don't want to lose this. No, no, no, no, no, no. I think there's a difference. I don't think that's the issue. First of all, you're already getting roasted there. It's not like it's going to change anything. I don't think it's the fear of making a deal or the fear of being roasted.

I think it's more like making a deal you know that will be on your resume forever or you're going to regret forever. That's the sense that I get. We shall see what happens with Vancouver. Who knows when we may have to do an emergency podcast. We'll stand by. Minnesota Wilding, Kevin Fiala. Mike Russo tweeting about this.

Mike Russo typing about this. What's happening with fiala um mike russo tweeting about this mike russo typing about this what's happening with fiala in minnesota i don't know if there's another person that has a better grasp of their team of anyone who covers a team than russo does in minnesota so when he says that this is a situation to watch it's a situation to watch because he has a certain intuition into what's happening there. You know, the one thing, and it was tough because they were playing tonight and he had a bad break.

He took a penalty that really wasn't him. And also, he did score a huge goal. So he needed that. Kulikov, right point. Fiala shoots and scores. That might have been tipped. Hard to tell. So a sixth attack goal. Another one for the Wild. They makeikov right point. Fiala shoots and scores. That might have been tipped. Hard to tell. So a sixth attack goal. Another one for the Wild. They make it 4-3. I think it was tipped, David.

It looked to me like it changed directions. The thing that someone said to me about it was this. If you look at Bill Guerin and the way he does things, he doesn't do them quickly. He's not afraid to make a big decision, but he does it with a plan. So if you go back to Souter and Parise last year, he made sure they went through the full process of, this is what I'm thinking. This is why I'm doing what we're going to do. He had debated that internally for a long time before he did it. I don't think he's going to trade Fiala because Fiala is going through a slump. If he's trading him, he's doing it because he thinks it makes them better. And Russo makes a good point about their cap situation, but that's not until next year. And if you think Fiala can help you this year

you deal with it this year and then you can deal them either at the deadline or the off season because he's still got one more year until he's a ufa right so him and evison know each other from milwaukee and evison's no shrinking violet and And Fiala, if you remember Everson playing, he backs down from no one. And Fiala is a confident lad, as they say, Mr. Merrick. I don't know if that's the term that many of his ex-colleagues perhaps in Nashville would use when he was there. I'm not sure extremely confident young man would be how they would describe him.

Quite do it justice. I think you're giving him a very, very soft landing on that one. Well, you know, the thing is- Listen, we talked about it before. The Nashville guys found him challenging when he first showed up as a rookie. He's very confident in himself. There's no question in that, and sometimes it rubs people the the wrong way but whatever i i'd rather someone believe in themselves than not i'd rather have to harness someone than you know whip them to get going so the point that someone

made to me was i could always be wrong garen could trade him tomorrow but the the sense i really got is that if bill garen is gonna move anyone like look how long he held on to damba and then he kept him don't assume anything conventional with bill garen was what someone told me and a player there is going to have a lot of time to show that it's not just a short-term thing they're going to have a lot of rope to to do what they need to do that's what someone said to me uh okay to pick up on a story we talked about last podcast uh the omaha lancers of the ushl now over the weekend um usa hockey and the ushl met with various players uh on the omaha lancers um we all know the story of the budget cuts

and the dismissal of Chad Cassidy and President Dave DeLuca placed on administrative leave. The USHL Sunday evening did provide an update on the Lancers. Bill Robertson, who's the president and commissioner, along with Josh Mervis, who's been appointed by the USHL to oversee operations of the team, met virtually with Lancers players, introduced Mervis and Omaha Lancers head coach Gary Graham

to the squad. The commissioner will be traveling to Omaha Monday to meet with players and staff. They resume hockey operations on Monday, November the 22nd, which will be when you hear this podcast. They will be playing next weekend, November 27th and 28th. What is the latest that you're hearing on the Omaha Lancers, Elliot? So Jeff, there's been, you know, a lot of reporters who are much closer to this story. You know, Chris Peters, Brad Elliott Schlossman,

Mike Patterson, he actually works in that area. I think Katie Strang's written a couple of things about it. I'm not as tied into it as they are, but I made some calls on more of a macro level and just asked what was going on. And there was some pretty interesting stuff that some people told me. And the thing they pointed out is that

there's a number of teams in the ushl and omaha is one of them that's owned by a parent where a child had is playing or had played for the team uh there's a few different situations there like that right now and this is one of them the de cesar family owns the team and one of their sons had played for them a few years ago. He left, he was enrolled at Notre Dame and now I think he's playing at Trinity College or something like that. But there's a worry there that this could happen in more than one place. That coming out of COVID where some of these teams got crushed. Now, once your child leaves the team, you might just not want to pour the money into it, right? You know, that's what someone said to me

today and someone else backed that is they're just wondering if this is kind of the tip of the iceberg with that. Like once their children are gone, is this going to happen in more than one place like this has been a weekend of bad pr for the team in the league unfortunately there's advisors because i guess you can't call them agents at this point other side of the business card agent on one side and family advisor on the other on the other side like they want their kids to leave there there i think there's some ncaa commits where the schools are saying can we find you somewhere else to play what someone said to me with that they were really worried about with this

is that are we going to see is this where families okay say all right you know we're coming out of covid finances are tighter my kid's gone or is leaving i don't care as much anymore and that's something they're going to have to protect themselves against if that's true. I want to open up with an email that winks back at our last podcast. Peter T from Colorado submits this one for each. My expat wife and I are in our 60s and wear our ABS jerseys to the games. I'll wear my ABS jersey once a year when Montreal comes to town, and she'll wear her Jets sweatshirt when Winnipeg comes in.

For those that didn't hear the last podcast, by the way, there's a question about is there an age appropriateness for wearing jerseys? To which Elliot and I both said, no, wear whatever you want. Wear them as long as you see fits. Back to the email. We see a lot of jerseys for the visiting team, especially the original six. That's okay. But what I don't get are guys, it's always males in brackets, who come to the game in a jersey from a third team what are your thoughts about someone who comes to an abs blackhawks game in a shark's jersey yeah jersey etiquette now is that where we're going yeah i'm not crazy about that especially if it's a rival i thought you were going to say red wings that's where i thought you were going but you know for example we both live

in toronto if the maple leaves were playing the penguins like they were last saturday and you showed up in a canadian's jersey like i think that's license for food targeting i think not that i condone food targeting but it's license for license for snarks or perhaps not food targeting maybe just the odd comment while you're off to have a squirt in the men's room, perhaps. You know what I kind of liken it to? When you go to a concert and someone's wearing someone else's band t-shirt. That's also weird to me.

It was. I remember when I first started going to concerts as a teenager, it always felt weird to me. But then I sort of got older and I said okay well there's a rolling stones fan at a who show who really cares like it is possible by the way to be a sharks fan and just enjoy hockey so you go to see the abs and the black ox but you just like to remind everybody where your first love is and that's san jose i'm fine with it yeah i think it's kind of weird well you're petty that way though elliot we've uh we that. Oh, I'm petty. There's no question about that.

I still think it's weird. Okay, to one of the big news stories that broke late last week, and we talked about it yesterday, well, you did specifically on 32 Thoughts on Hockey Night. Fenway Sports in the process of purchasing the Pittsburgh Penguins, but that's not the first door that they knocked on. They knocked on the Maple Leaf sports and entertainment door before they got to Pittsburgh. For those that didn't see the hit on Saturday, what do you hear?

What do you know? So Fenway sports group, as you mentioned, they own the Red Sox, they own Liverpool and they're in the process of buying the Penguins. And the other thing I've heard is that they are not done. This is an aggressive organization they want to go in the nba and you know the nfl is a little bit of a trickier animal because of its ownership rules but they have interest pending you know kind of how things could potentially work somewhere down the road but as you mentioned before they went to the penguins someone on their behalf i don't

necessarily think it was someone particularly in the fenway sports group hierarchy but somebody with a connection to them reached out to maple leaf sports and entertainment and said look would you be interested in a merger now the, the most challenging thing about that, for those of you who aren't familiar, Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment owns Scotiabank Arena, the Maple Leafs, the Raptors, the Argos, and TFC, the MLS team. Rogers by itself owns the Blue Jays,

and that would be a challenge. Rogers has a share, a 37.5% share of MLSC and they own the Blue Jays. So how would you do that? Can't own the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. So for example, that would be one of the questions they had to work out. Whatever the case is, at that point in time, MLSC said, it's not right for us at this time. We're not ready. And it didn't go very far. However, a couple of people who work in the banking industry were telling me that they believe that what Fenway is doing is where sports are going. For example, the owners of the Devils, Harrods Blitzer, they own the Devils.

They own the 76ers. They own Crystal Palace. the devils they own the 76ers they own crystal palace the owners of the tampa bay buccaneers the glazer family they own manchester united and it's going to go more and more what fenway is doing this is where we're headed and you know what these these bankers were telling me was that's not going to be the last time maple leaf sports and entertainment is going to be asked they're going to be asked again, and someone's going to throw enough money at them at some point to think about it. In general, I think you're going to see more and more of this, but I also think we're headed into

an interesting time with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment because, as everybody knows, there's been changes at the top of Rogers. And I think people are wondering, what is that going to mean for its sports properties? What is the future of them? And I think people are kind of wondering, especially now that this is out there, that someone came to them once, what's everybody's intentions going to be and what's going to happen the next time? Because there is going to be and what's going to happen the next time because there is going to be a next time so a couple of things here um one is the end goal with all of this whether you're fenway sports or another major company like this looking to gobble up teams

in different sports is the end goal the streaming service i think in fenway's case that's definitely one thing that's huge is a content platform. Yes, 100%. You know, the merger would be an interesting one if it had gone through for all the reasons that you indicate and then turning their attention to Pittsburgh. And the one thing that jumps out at me is I always wonder about a city's sports vibration. You know, what's it like? How do fans feel about their teams?

How do citizens feel about their sports teams? And the interesting thing about Pittsburgh is right now all the major league sports teams are family owned. And that ends with this. I don't know if that changes the vibe profoundly or immediately, but it will change. I mean, Elliot, when we were growing up, whether it was Ballard or Steven Stavros, you had

a face and a family you could point to and say, they're responsible for this team. The thing that I wonder about through all of this as this is looking towards the future of what ownership is going to look like are we in your estimation that not just hockey but other sports as well seeing the end of the family-run sports organization jeff i think we've been headed that way in a long time i mean there are some families that are incredibly wealthy that can do this but there's no question when you take a look at the prices to buy teams or what these teams are valued at it's going to be a very exclusive club there's no question about it

i think the other thing too is you know some of these leagues have certain rules about how ownership groups have to work and who owns them and is it one specific person and can it be a company and things like that you know that's the other thing that you know people are telling me are some of these leagues including the nhl going to have to rewrite who can actually own them you know some leagues don't like ownership that's purely corporate they want a face to it so like when i said on saturday night i don't know exactly where we're going but i know we're going somewhere i think that's kind of where we are do you have any indication what the the price tag may have been on pittsburgh how much fenway would have would have spent on this I'm wondering if we find out the

sale at the board of governors which is scheduled for the second week of December right like there were some people who were saying to me they thought it was going to be done last week and then on the weekend when I was researching it I just heard it's not done yet so I wonder if they'll just wait to the board of governors but the number I heard they wanted to get to was 900 million now I've had some to get to was 900 million. Now, I've had some people say to me they think it's between 850 and nine. But again, I'm not reporting that as firm. But the number I heard Pittsburgh wanted to get to was 900.

And the league wanted Pittsburgh to get to 900. I mentioned last week the rumor that when the team was out there about seven years ago, you know, the league was saying nothing under 750 and it didn't get there at the time, but I heard they wanted 900 here. I don't know if they got there, but I think it's somewhere going to be between eight 50 and nine. Speaking of ownership, speaking of franchises, Quebec premier Francois Legault raising eyebrows on RDS on last Thursday, talking publicly about bringing the Nordiques back to Quebec, Elliot, indicating that the government will meet with Gary Bettman to discuss this in the upcoming months. I spoke to a couple of people, and one in specific, about what this all means.

This is someone who's very close to that scene. I actually thought that the thing that you reported that was most interesting was that there was a call between the league and who was it last week like who did they talk to uh bill daly said there was a phone call but that no meeting had been arranged now i'm not sure whether that was with francois legault himself or someone from his office but bill d Daley did indicate that there was a phone call. Said, look, no meetings have been arranged. We're willing to talk and meet.

But the quote he gave me is, you know, we are obviously pleased with what we have. You know, people have mentioned to me, one person really close to it said, look, we're a year away from a provincial election. Campaigning has begun. Yes, that's always happened. Hockey in Canada, you know, and bring a team back.

And, you know, the mayor of Quebec City has stepped down now, and he's been the main driver of the Bring the Nordiques back. And so there's a vacuum there. And I guess, you know, the premier is trying to fill it right now. But I thought the interesting thing that he brought up as well is, you know, the last time that we saw Quebec try to get a team, it was all about Quebecor, right? It was, you know, the one company trying to bring a team to Quebec City. What he talked about was the idea that although Quebecor will be given, you know, first approval on joining consortium, that's the desired way to go about acquiring a club.

And also, and you can see where this is a political hot potato as well, that the provincial government may consider an investment, investing capital in the project. So that is a new one. Here's why I don't always like that story. I agree with you. I think it's a political stunt in a lot of ways. I don't like political stunts. I don't have a lot of time for politicians. I think you tug at people's heartstrings.

I don't like that. I was in the room when Quebec or saw Vegas get the team and they didn't. And I just remember watching them sitting there watching that and the staff who worked on their bid and wanted to be a part of it. And like it sucked for them, right? And they were so good about it. They said all the right things. They gritted their teeth. They watched the celebration.

I just don't like people being jerked around like this. You know, I really don't. So I don't like people being jerked around like this You know, I really don't So I don't like that whole thing Look, what do you think the damage is to the Montreal Canadiens If the Nordiques come back? You think there'll be damage? You don't think there would be a significant financial impact on them? All I think about is the rivalry

Well, of course I mean, like I would love to see the Nordiques mean, like I would love to see the Nordiques come back. Like I would love to see the Nordiques come back. It would be awesome to see the Nordiques and the Canadians go head to head again. But the question I have is, do you think both those teams, the Montreal Canadians and the Quebec Nordiques, can both be successful financially? I don't think the Nordiques can. I still think the Montreal Canadiens can. I've always been skeptical about Quebec.

I don't know how this one works. And I'm with you. I hate seeing fans get jerked around, and I hate the idea that the Videotron Center could be this generation's cop's coliseum. But I can't see it. I do believe, it's my opinion, that if the Nordiques were to come back, they would take a significant bite out of the Canadians. See, I don't see it. I do believe, it's my opinion, that if the Nordics were to come back,

they would take a significant bite out of the Canadians. See, I don't know. I don't want to just blather something out and do talk radio 101. I really don't know how much of a dent it would put in the Montreal Canadians. I don't. Anyway, I just don't think that this is,

I just think that people get jerked around when this story comes up. The one thing about Winnipeg was there was a point where if you were following the league closely enough, you knew that Winnipeg was very much on the radar because they had a big problem in Arizona and then they had a big problem in Atlanta. So here's the difference. And I'm glad you mentioned that because the one thing that we know the NHL does not like around new franchises is noise or trying to attract franchise noise. This is not the way.

Look at the way Winnipeg did it. It was quiet. There were no rallies. There were no big speeches. There was no going on television. You know, it was very much the opposite of how the Winnipeg Jets ownership group went about getting the Atlanta Thrashers into Manitoba. I mean, it wasn't that long ago, Elliot, that Nordiques fans were loading up buses and going

to Long Island, right? Remember them in the stands at Nassau Coliseum, you know, chanting, bring back the Nordiques? That doesn't go over well with the NHL. They don't like that kind of noise around either expansion or relocation. That's just not the way they do things. That's why when I first saw this story, I thought, well, A, NHL is not going to do this and B they really don't like this type of noise around it they don't like that loud at all so to me right off the hop there were two strikes on this one and the fact that it's a politician you look at it and say okay October 22nd I think it is next year Quebecers go to the polls this is the obvious one yeah but I But I am with you. Man, I love that rivalry.

That to me was the nastiest rivalry of all of them. One of the reasons I hate my parents, I was born too late to cover Nordiques and Canadians and Oilers versus Flames in their primes. Another reason to hate your parents.

Games that took four hours long to play. Also this weekend, Elliot, we saw the opening of the WBS Arena. Live from UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, Calgary Flames hockey is on the air. Tonight, in the first ever National Hockey League game played at the brand new UBS Arena, Jacob Markstrom and the 9-3-5 Calgary Flames will face Matt Barzell and the 5-6-2 New York Islanders.

This was overshadowed by a couple of things. Players on COVID protocol and the Calgary Flames winning 5-2. Andrew Mangiapane scoring goals number 13 and 14. Do you have a thought on what we saw on Saturday? First of all, the new rink in town, the new rink in the league, and second of all, another team going through it. You know, we just went through this with the Ottawa Senators, previous to that, the San Jose Sharks, now the Islanders with Pellick, Green, Bevilier, Lee, Johnson, and Bailey. Now Bevilier, as we know

now, was a false positive, but Kieifer bellows is in covet protocol as we speak elliot first of all the whole covet situation you know the reason that ottawa was shut down was they couldn't stop the spread of it basically what happened is we know there's one unvaccinated player right and the staff are pretty much all vaccinated as far as we know so when you're vaccinated you only get tested every three days so the moment you have some positive tests you start getting tested every day there's called enhanced protocols and what happened in Ottawa was they were testing everybody every day and they had the enhanced protocols and they couldn't stop it and finally they just shut it down. And so, you know, you look at the Islander situation, you're wondering, okay, how close are we getting to here?

You know, the other thing though, we talked about it briefly on Saturday night. I got a call on Sunday from someone expressing a lot of frustration with the testing. And they said that if you look at Ottawa there were rumors of people being and I heard them like I was getting notes almost every day saying this person will be added to the protocol and I waited because someone warned me that there were there was a mix of true positives and false positives and there were times they couldn't figure out you know what was happening look at what happened with Dylan Larkin he got pulled out of a game and then the next day they found it was a false positive like and they just changed some of the protocols and the testing because of some of these concerns so i think there's a real

problem right now jeff it's a bit of a mess because the doctors are saying look if you want to avoid canceling games or postponing games and you want to go to the Olympics, you have to test. And some of the teams and the league, and I think even some of the players, are bitching about the test because they're saying that there's too many false positives. So I think there's a lot of frustration right now. And I admit, I don't have the answers when i asked last week you know what was the difference with ottawa they finally got it shut down i was told they couldn't stop the spread of cases even with enhanced protocols so that's what i watch for here is when do we get to a point where the doctors say and i do think it is the doctors making the calls

where they just say okay enough's enough this is over with um the arena looks beautiful you know michael leboff who's a big islander fan who all works for the action network he was so excited to go yesterday you could see how excited the islanders fans were and i loved that they gave clutterbuck martin and sezikis the first shift i i thought that was great i i'm really happy for the islanders and their fans that's a good true hardcore nhl flagship base and they deserve it and i believe it was oliver wallstrom who got to step on the ice at practice the first wonder if they all like ran out and tackled each other in the hallway they had a competition for it i wonder if it was rock paper

scissors something i think it was something like that and wallstrom won so he got to be the first you know what the other guys are all probably beating up each other and wallstrom just snuck out around them hey here's a question for you elliot yeah can a single goal get you a call up to the nhl if so so, tick, tick, Josh Hossain. No, I don't think so. It's funny you said that because I didn't realize he has eight goals already, right? Twelve points in twelve games. Yeah,

I don't think it's going to be that simple. Look, he's trending in the right direction, but I don't think I was expecting a call-up after the beautiful winner on Saturday just a couple hours before they played Pittsburgh. Carries it across the line. One, two, scores!

It stings for Ho-Sang! Sensational win for the Marlies! 3-2 with 40 seconds left to go in overtime. What a move by Joshosh hosang look for example like i don't think he's going out in the west coast with them or anything like that right because they're playing the islanders on sunday and then they go out west but he's gonna get his chance eventually if he keeps playing like that that was a gorgeous goal man we've seen some we've seen some beauties this year the carter verhey we make a lot about the Connor McDavid goals.

The Carter Verhege goal the other night coming down the side, coming down the boards was gorgeous. The Hosang goal that you mentioned for the Marlies was gorgeous. We've seen some beauties so far this season. Do you have a thought on Mason McTavish? Third overall draft pick sent back to Peterborough of the OHL where it's pretty much a foregone conclusion he'll be traded um i was told look for london look for sue saint marie uh look for barry

and look for oshawa even uh as it sounds like oshawa is going to try to go for it uh this year you ever thought on mason mctish, third overall getting sent back? Well, what? There's two left, right? One, Cole Sillinger. That's it. What about Seth Jarvis? He wasn't last year's.

He was in 2021 draft. You got me on that one. He was. You know what? You know why he's important? That was the pick that Carolina got from the Leafs for Patrick Marleau. Yes. From the Portland Winterhawks.

Yeah, no, Cole Sillinger, if he was going to get sent back, would go to the Medicine Hat Tigers. So now there is only one, Cole Sillinger of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Mason McTavish is a center, right? And they got to put him on the wing because all of a sudden down the middle, you got a rejuvenated Ryan Getzlaff. You got Trevor Zegers. And you got, very quietly, Isaac Lundestrom

putting together a really nice season for the Anaheim Ducks. Good luck getting into the middle with those three guys there, but it's going to be like an embarrassment of riches down the middle for Anaheim for quite some time. I got to tell you, I think there's a lot of interest in that job. You do, eh? I don't know what they're going to do there, but I've heard there's a lot of interest in that job. Well, when you look at all the young players they have, and it's all starting to actualize now, and there's decisions on Lindholm and Manson

that we all know have to be made, it's pretty attractive. I think we looked at it, I don't know about you, Elliot, I looked at it and I said, they're going to be good eventually. I I don't know about you, Elliot, I looked at it and I said, they're going to be good eventually. I just don't know when eventually is. You always look at development, progress, all of it. It's not always linear.

Ask Vancouver Canucks fans what that feels like, just playing out of their minds in the bubble, and then it's been steps back. But we knew they'd be good one day. I don't know that we thought they would be this good this fast though. I can see why there'd be a lot of interest in that GM job. This is a good team. And you can see that it's going to be a good team for a while as well. Okay, a couple of different ways to get in touch with us and have your voice heard here on the podcast. One, you can email us at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca

or call the thought line 1-833-311-3232. That's snappy. 1-833-311-3232. That's snappy. 1-833-311-3232. It is the thought line. First email from Gene Elliott. You should give an update on the snake draft at the beginning of each episode. Elliott started it and created interest. So do the updates.

Who's winning this thing right now? That is so lame. That is so lame. Were you saving this email for when you had it where's the crown no i listen i just go with what oh what amel submits to me and i just pass it along this almost you're lame too this good listener was um kind enough gene to take some time out of his day to send this to us it has legitimate curiosity about the in-season stanley cup and uh just having a quick peek at who's wearing the crown total days champion

eight you guys are both i liked you better when you were at zero you know what when i was at zero and dave was like at 18 he's still at 18 but he's he's paused a little bit and you started to rack up the numbers he only has two teams in the western conference i know right so he's still at 18 but he's he's paused a little bit and you started to rack up the numbers he only has two teams in the western conference i know right so he's stuck right now i was hoping that i would run the table and not have one day as champion and i think i texted you asking if i could get a prize for that and you shot me down fast you don't deserve any prizes so basically what you should do is if you're interested, you should follow at InSeasonCup on Twitter. Yes. It's a grade four or five math class that is tracking our standings.

They've put together a great graphic of a school in Oakville, Ontario. And right now Jeff has the cup with the Edmonton Oilers, who will next defend it on Tuesday night in Dallas, who I have. So they've created a great graphic that shows who has the cup and how many days they've had for the year and the schedule. And right now, Dave Amber has 18. Oh, he had a great run.

He had a great run early, but as we said, he's only got Colorado and and vancouver in the west so we'll see what that does but dave's at 18 i'm at 12 jeff's at 8 with the current championship and poor carolyn never got out of the parking lot i guess she's got two i've got edmonton facing off against your dallas stars on tuesday then i've gotmonton. So we're going to beat the Dallas Stars. Okay. Then I've got my Edmonton Oilers facing off against my Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.

So normally a back-to-back is like, uh-oh, that spells trouble. Yeah, not so fast. Unless Arizona wins, then I'll probably surrender this thing quick. At in-season cup is where you should look. It's really good, and we thank those kind people, those great four and five students

for putting this one together. Okay. This harkens back to a previous conversation. This is from Nicholas. With the recent news of the Pittsburgh Penguins possibly being bought by the Fenway Sports Group, my question was, how does the sale of teams like this start? Do the owners reach out to others or is there like an

ebay site just for billion hairs oh that's funny how do these types of sales come about in the sports world there's a lot of different ways like so earlier in the podcast we talked about how fenway sports group sent someone i don't know if sent someone is the right way but someone reached out on their behalf to mlse sometimes that happens you know betman i don't know if he still does it but he used to be a pretty big cold caller you know he would call people kind of out of nowhere and just say look you know we've got teams available people he wanted in his league we've got teams available, people he wanted in his league. We've got teams available in the NHL. You know, would you be interested? I think now there's a lot of research done and there's a lot of companies put together

with the express purpose to buy things. And I think it happens a lot of the way that Fenway approached MLSE. They say, go reach out to them. And it kind of goes from there. Or, you know, with Winnipeg, they told the league, if you ever need to bring a team back here, we're here and we've got this ready. So I don't think there's one hard and fast rule. I think sometimes you let a league year know you're interested.

I think sometimes the league comes for you. And I think sometimes an interested party will go to you and say, what are you thinking? Sometimes situations come up like with Vegas. I don't think the league was really convinced on Vegas at the beginning, but they set a price 500 and bill fully met it. Hang on, hang on.

Isn't, isn't one of the caveats always, do you have a rink? I thought that kind of goes without saying, you know, you're not getting a team. If you're going to play in the Merrick backyard, you either,

you either have a rink. I mean, this is always the, well, that was the difference between Seattle before and Seattle. Now you had a rink i mean this is always the well that was the difference between seattle before and seattle now you had a rink that was one of the things that hamilton always hung their hat on hey we have a rink waiting here and that's what quebec is as well with the videotron center well with vegas vegas came to the league and i think the league took a lot of

convincing to go to vegas i still believe this to this day they initially did not want to do it but then they said okay 500 million and they got told okay you'll get your 500 million to go to Vegas. I still believe this to this day. They initially did not want to do it. But then they said, okay, $500 million. And they got told, okay, you'll get your $500 million. And then all of a sudden they have a rink. And Vegas has turned out to be a huge success for the NHL. Like much, much better than I think anyone ever envisioned. And that's a credit to the Golden Knights. And players want to play there.

It's a destination to go. So I think what they did with Vegas was they said, okay, now Seattle. And what they said was we're setting the price, $650,000, and you have to get your arena situation sorted out. And they hit the price, and they got their situation sorted out. So sometimes I think the league says,

you have to convince the league and the league sets terms and now can you meet them? And I think in these particular cases, that's what happened. The league said, okay, if you're serious about this, you have to have this and this and you got to hit this number. And both those situations did that. Barry from British Columbia sends in this one elliot why do the linesmen insist on getting in the middle of every shoving match these days actually

barry has happened long long before these days um he continues it just encourages these so-called tough guys to continue their nonsense amen stay out of it and let the mouthpieces get laid out a few times and the pace of the game will improve greatly. Plus, it will prevent a linesman from being seriously injured, which is going to happen eventually. Thoughts on this one? One of my favorite referees ever was Paul Stewart. He's a former tough guy, minor league, NHL as well,

who ended up being an NHL referee. And like me, and I think like a lot of us, and like obviously Barry from BC, he hated scrums because the guys that do it are just waiting for the linesman to come in and peel the guys apart. Why I ought to, well, wait till this guy gets, well, get this guy off of me. Well, if this linesman would get out of the way, it's the fake tough guy nonsense. Paul Stewart would call his linesman out of scrums. He'd say,

guys, get out. You guys are going to settle this. Are you going to fight? Or are you just going to stop? But my guys aren't coming. And he, he,

I mean, he would stand there outside of scrum and he'd yell like my guys aren't coming in because how many times have you seen like Elliot players looking around for the linesman to come in when they want to continue with the act that they really don't want to do? You have a thought on that one? I just wonder if the whole concussion scenario plays into it. In what sense?

They're more inclined to stop it than they used to be. I think for fights, when they were instructed, the minute you have a chance to safely stop a fight do it even before it actually takes place now it seems as if they've laxed on that like when guys will fade back to center ice to do the spotlight fight two linesmen can jump in there okay the last podcast we talked about reeves and pesetta you don't think there was enough time for two linesmen to jump in there and get in between look how long it took them to engage linesmen were anywhere near them i have a hard time believing that two linesmen couldn't have grabbed each individual by the time they finally engaged because pesetta approached they dropped their gloves and pesetta almost like he had to talk himself into actually doing it i just think generally though like most people say to me that it's a good point i i can

see on that one but most people say to me that linesmen are much faster to get in now than they used to be that one would definitely be an exception anybody from the kevin collins era says i don't think so because that guy jumped in fast let's get to the thought line who do we have amel hey jeff this is uh just like halifax i have a question for you about dan carlin what is your favorite podcast by dan carlin and why is it the monster rebellion thanks bye the monster that is that one is called prophets of doom elliot you know this i'm a huge carlin fan yeah you've appeared with him that was podcast fantasy camp for me um Going on his podcast,

Hardcore History Addendum. That was a real treat. Prophets of Doom is really good. The Monster Rebellion is fascinating and seeing those cages still hanging outside that church is a little creepy and haunting. I always go back to Blueprint for Armageddon.

That is the multi-part series on World War I. I've recently re-listened to Supernova in the East, which is all about the war in the Pacific towards the end of World War II. Destroyer of Worlds is outstanding. Ghosts of the Ostfront is great. His Conversations with Ian W. Toll most recently.

Fred Kaplan, author of The Bomb and Wizards of Armageddon is outstanding. There's a lot, but I'll always go back to Blueprint for Armageddon. I always tell people, if you're going to listen to one series of podcasts from Carlin, Blueprint for Armageddon, because this guy has the most unique ability to make you feel like you're there and put you in those positions. And for Carlin, he always talks about context is king, context is king. He takes one event and describes it a number of different ways from a number of different perspectives. And so you feel like you are there, but in a number of different lives. To me, he's the most fascinating

podcaster going. Blueprint for Armageddondon that's the one although on second listening supernova in the east is outstanding like the older he gets the better he gets at doing this and he's been doing this for a long time um supernova in the east may end up being his his best work but i'll always go back to blueprint for armageddon thank you jislin from halifax you like carlin too don't you freach i do i don't know half of what you just talked about but i do like what a great way to finish the podcast with me talking and not elliot um taking us out an artist whose performance style is a mix of live instrumentation and looping michael hamilton stage name mh vernon has been making music for over a decade

and started performing live during his time in Seoul, South Korea. From his 2020 Feel the Urgency EP, here's M.H. Vernon with Watcha on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Who you gonna see? Who you gonna meet? What you gonna do with your life? Where you gonna run? What you gonna do? When you gonna buy the gun? When you gonna get on Where you gonna go? Who you gonna see? Who you gonna meet? What you gonna do with your life? Where you gonna run? What you gonna do? When you gonna buy your gun? Where you gonna run What you gonna do

When you gonna buy your gun When you gonna get on your feet Here tonight And some people Don't wanna grow And some people's laundry is in so easy to pull I'm gonna do it tonight