32 Thoughts: The Podcast - This Season Has Been Drama Filled

Episode Date: November 24, 2023

Jeff and Elliotte discuss the Corey Perry situation and then dive into the Edmonton Oilers' continued struggles (3:38). They talk about the Oilers having to manage a narrative that Connor McDavid is flexing his power within the organization (5:52). Elliotte highlights his biggest takeaways from a big Columbus win on Wednesday (23:01) and the guys provide an update on Patrick Kane's future (30:51). Next, the latest on the John Klingberg situation (35:22) and Jeff and Elliotte wrap up the podcast by talking about Winter Classic jersey reveals for the Kraken and the Golden Knights (1:00:00).The guys answer your questions  in the Montana’s Thought Line (38:07). Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Texas A&M should be looking for some new lawyers because I think their current lawyer is Lionel Hutz. There's the truth and then the truth. But there's the truth and the truth. You know, Elliot, it's a good thing we're recording this podcast on U.S. Thanksgiving and the NHL is dark because we can all use a break, all use a breath, try to regroup because so far the season has been drama filled. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented as always by the GMC Sierra HD, Merrick Friedman and Old Dom. Yes, we're determined to make that stick.

we're determined to make that stick. Before we get to the situation in Edmonton, before we talk about Patrick Kane, before we talk about Columbus, before we talk about the big cat in Tampa, before we talk about John Klingberg in Toronto, to the best of your knowledge, and information seems really scarce, what is happening with Corey Perry in Chicago?

You know, Jeff, we're taping this in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday, and this is one of those situations where you're almost afraid to say anything because you're worried what's going to come after you recorded the pod. What we know is this. Corey Perry was supposed to play on Wednesday night against Columbus. Nikita Zaitsev was the extra player at skate on Wednesday morning, and he took the bag skate. And when you take that skate, you're not supposed to play. And all of a sudden, Zaitsev in, Perry out. They don't have any extra forwards.

And there's a big mystery going on here about what's happening. You know, I think the first thing everybody thinks about when this is, is there a trade? Not sensing that right now could always change, but I'm not sensing that right now. So we'll just have to see how it plays out. I mean, look, the way that the Blackhawks are handling this, it's obvious there's something, but I just think it's wildly irresponsible to guess. We'll see how this plays out. This story continues. The Blackhawks next in action Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

We're going to get to the Maple Leafs and John Klingberg here in a couple of moments. In the meantime, let's rewind to Wednesday because there were 14 games on the schedule and about 14,000 stories coming out of them. And one of the big ones, and maybe the biggest one, is the continuing spiral of the Edmonton Oilers. 6-3 was the final score, but if I really want to pile on, I'll mention that Michael Bunting hit a post and Sebastian Ajo had a goal taken away on Blue Line Review. But I'm not going to do that. So 6-3 is the final. It seemed as if the game was cursed for Edmonton in the beginning, in the

pregame, Elliott with Stuart Skinner sliding into Carolina's zone, and then Darnell Nurse getting a puck in the face in warm-up, wasn't wearing a helmet, caught one, looks like right between the lookers, and was all gauzed up to start the game, although he missed the first couple of minutes. Look, this one was over pretty

quick. Two quick goals, three quick goals, four quick goals, the exit of Stuart Skinner. Zach Hyman kind of gave the Oilers a little brief glimpse of light as they tried to claw back throughout the game. But this one, this one was ugly early and then

the final was ugly 6-3 is the final I don't even know what to ask at this point because it all does feel like piling on but things have come unraveled in Edmonton and where do we go now I honestly believe that the Oilers are going to try to weather this as much as they can without doing anything they're going to regret for generations and you know for example when this Perry thing happened on Thursday afternoon I had a bunch of people sending me notes you think it's Perry and Mrazek to the Oilers when Auntie Ranta left the game after the first period on Wednesday night people were texting me do you think he's going to be traded to the Oilers When Antti Ranta left the game after the first period on Wednesday night, people were texting me, do you think he's going to be traded to the Oilers? Show up in the third. And I was like, what, you think he's going to show up for the third period?

Yeah. I mean, it's crazy around Edmonton now. A whisper on one end of the league is connected to, is this going to be what the Oilers do to facilitate a trade a whisper right now in Australia turns into how does this affect the Oilers and their trade for a goalie I mean look Jeff watching that game do you want Skinner to make a save yeah you want him to make a save but some of those goals were ridiculous like Like they weren't all on him. They're covered still. You take a look at this,

and there's not a lot of practice time right now. It's Tampa, day off, Florida, day off, Carolina, day off, Washington, Friday afternoon. You look at it all, but it's very obvious that they haven't fixed the problems that ailed them before the coaching change. They're still really leaky. Teams are still getting great chances against them.

You know, Carolina forechecks a certain way, and Edmonton couldn't handle it. And that, for example, led to one of the goals, the one where people were all over CC online and social. But the bottom line is they were not prepared to handle what Carolina threw at them on that particular shift, their forecheck. So I look at them, and I see a lot of things that still need to be fixed, and I see a team that is determined not to make a really bad trade. Jeff, there's something I wrote about in the notes on Thursday night that I want to discuss with you further. And one of the things I think that the Oilers are going to have to deal with is this narrative that because McDavid's former

agent is now the president of hockey operations and his former junior coach is now the head coach, that McDavid is flexing his muscle and growing his power in the organization. I don't think he likes that one bit. I don't think he's now. And I will say this. I don't presume to speak for Connor McDavid. He is capable of talking for himself, but one of the things I am hearing and, and my experiences with him, I believe this is that he resents the idea that he is flexing his muscle over the team and making organizational decisions. And the comparison that I made in the notes is Matt Sundin,

who just was all over Sweden with the Maple Leafs. And Matt Sundin was a guy who absolutely hated the idea. Like if you ever went to him and said said why don't you go out and get this player um he would get upset at that i saw him snap at a reporter once who said on the radio that leaf players had told him that they didn't think jonas hoglund should be playing with sundin and and someone reminded me that there was another time when Sundin's line mates were Nick Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky that once a reporter went up to him and said, you know, why don't you ask for other wingers?

And he got mad at that reporter. He would get really upset about stuff like that. He believed his job was to play. And Jeff, you know in our business, not only in sports, but in media, there are people who like to wield power over who gets hired or who appears on air with them. I don't think McDavid is like that. I don't think he was behind Jay Woodcroft's dismissal. Even though he was consulted about what he thought was going wrong i don't think you can tell me if you think i'm wrong jeff but i don't think for a second that connor mcdavid said

we need to fire the coach and bring in my junior coach and i just think that this is something the others are going to have to deal with because i think that McDavid hates that people would think he's like that. You know what I think, Elliot? What do you think? I think if Jeff Jackson took over the Los Angeles Kings or the New York Islanders or the Minnesota Wild or the Florida Panthers or pick a team. Doesn't matter.

Do you know who I think he would try to install as head coach? Who dad? Chris Knobloch. I don't think that has anything to do with Connor McDavid. That just has to do with Jeff Jackson. I agree with, I've said that and i agree with you a thousand percent how many times have we said on this podcast that when jeff jackson was an agent

he would talk about chris no i remember at the memorial cup in windsor specifically i remember having a conversation with jeff jackson about chobloch, how this guy is going to be an NHL coach one day. That's how far back this goes. You know what I don't believe about that story? What's that? That Jeff Jackson would willingly have a conversation with you. Oh, if you only knew, Elliot, if you only knew. That's funny.

That was the Memorial Cup where the Windsor Spitfires, Rocky Thompson's Windsor Spitfires, upset Chris Knobloch's eerie otters. And I can still remember one of my vivid memories of that Memorial Cup. I remember I got there, I was working with Colby Armstrong, and we got there early and the Seattle Thunderbirds were skating. And so the media relations director said, who do you want to talk to after the skate? And we were like, oh, we want to talk to Barzell. Then you want to talk about Ethan Baer, et cetera. We want to talk about, talk to Matthew Barzell. And so we got down there and when the minute that Barzell saw Colby Armstrong, you could tell like his eyes got really wide and he put up with a couple of our questions. And after about two or three, he just said, essentially, can I talk to you about Sidney

Crosby now? And then like, he just like grilled Colby you about Sidney Crosby now? And then he just grilled Colby Armstrong about Sidney Crosby because it was his favorite player and what it was like skating and playing with Sidney Crosby. One of my enduring – It's a good story. Honestly, Freed, you would have loved it because he got so excited. Like, wow, I get to talk to someone who played with Sidney Crosby.

That's what Matthew Barzal was interested in. He put up with my goofy questions and Colby's goofy questions. And then he just started to, and then he just started to grill him about Sidney Crosby. No, but I think that, you know, wherever Jeff Jackson was going to end up once he made that decision,

that he was no longer going to work as an agent with Wasserman. And he'd be interested in running a hockey team. I think Chris Doblock would have gone with him. Or that's the, that's the coach that he would would have taken with him I don't think it has anything to do with Connor McDavid and you can say hang on a second here like it's obvious it's right out in the open the thing is optically it looks like that yes optically in the hockey sphere in the hockey sphere where everything is always correct and accurate there is this growing belief and you know what like like i i on some level you can understand it right because you look at it you say jeff jackson f ex-agent

chris knobloch ex-coach they're trying to make him happy so like i get it like it's a lot i've seen people convicted of criminal offenses on a lot less but i i look at this and i say i know why everyone thinks it but it's wrong and it's wrong to the point where the oilers are going to have to do what they can to smash it because they know how much that's going to make McDavid upset. I think he wants to play. He wants to win. It already is bad enough right now. He's happy to take the blame on himself. He will always accept responsibility for things not going as well as they could. not going as well as they could but i think where the line is with him is people saying he's remaking this team in his image he doesn't want that let me circle back to this idea of weathering the storm and not making a panic move and not getting rushed into making a quote unquote bad trade. The word bad is doing a lot of lifting in a lot of these conversations

about Edmondson as I find it, because there's two kinds of bad when it comes to a trade. There's bad right now and there's bad long term. And what I wonder about is, are the Oilers now at a place, and if not, when? Because I would have to imagine if this continues, they'd have to get to this place. Are they at a place where they'll make a move that is bad long-term,

but good right now? No. Then what are they doing? Is one of the questions then that people would ask. Because this is Leon and Connor on the clock. Well, this that people would ask because this is leon and connor on the clock well this is the thing and and this is important this is this is the kind of the biggest thing that they have to weigh here is because now it's starting to go to like like i watch a lot of

the stuff online and now you have oilers fans saying I don't care what we have to give up we just have to do it we have to do something that is the danger zone that is the desperation zone Jeff I have been in the desperation zone, and it is not a pretty place. At 1.59 a.m. on a Friday night at the Seeps in London. You said it, not me. Look, we talked about this on a radio show. One of our producers and one of our on-air people, and as I say again, it's the worst producer

and the worst on-air person at Sportsnet, so people can decide who those are. They have a bet now. I called it the Christmas party. It was the Sportsnet 25th anniversary party. I was corrected. 90 points to make the playoffs in the West. Now, as we sit here and we do the podcast, the cutoff in the wild card is a 500 points percentage. According to multiple sources, a 500 points percentage in an 82-game season is 82 points.

I have a hard time believing that will stay. And yeah, Edmonton is at 306, heading into Friday's game in Washington. Like, even to get to 82, they've got a lot of work to do. But one thing I think the Oilers feel is, like number one, and I really do believe this, their plan was to send Campbell down, hope he gets his game going, and then bring him back, right?

And he started off very poorly. He got a shutout this week against Henderson, but that was their goal. So I think part of them are like nobody's running away with this we could get hot with these two guys and we could still make the playoffs St. Louis did it Florida did it you plead to the patron saints of playoff miracles past the problem is is, is that they're playing so poorly. It's not just goaltending that has to get better. It's their whole game that has to get better. But because the rest of the conference isn't exactly pulling away from them,

you have this belief you can do it. But I think right now what you have to be thinking is you have to be weighing the long-term decisions. Ken Holland's in the final year of his deal. Whoever's going to be the GM next year, whether it's going to be Dave Gagné or Mark Hunter or someone else, you have to start to think, okay, maybe we'll just hold we'll play our hand we'll see how this unfolds the rest of the year and then we'll make our decisions but you know for one for something a GM pointed out to me on on Thursday was now if you're trading a first rounder, it could be a lottery pick. And not only could it be a lottery pick, but then you come into the situation where you're saying like, okay, let's say we have to top five protected this year. Well, then you have to leave it open in the future.

And all of a sudden, you've got a question about where you're going you think you know but you don't know and how much protection can you put on to it in the future that it doesn't bite you so I look at it now Jeff I understand why people say you've got to make a move to save your season and they're not wrong. But again, you have to have a line of what is acceptable. If your move is like a Sam Montembeau or a Caden Primo or say a Peter Morazic or something like that, you're doing it, but you're not doing it at a cost where, but you're not doing it at a cost where, well, I want you to take this contract too and a first rounder is going to be part of it. Like a buyout for Jack Campbell is $10 million.

What do you think that cost is in terms of draft capital? I don't think you should pay that right now unless someone gives you an unbelievably good deal. Here's another question to consider. When we say long-term with Edmonton, Edmonton needs to also consider the long-term ramifications. What does long-term mean in Edmonton right now? Does it mean the end of Leon's contract?

Does it mean the end of Connor's contract? What does long-term mean in Edmonton? That's a good question. the end of Conor's contract. What does long-term mean in Edmonton? That's a good question. I think long-term means what do you think these players are thinking? That's what long-term is. So then it's the Leon and McDavid contracts. That's as far out as you're thinking.

I think the other thing too is if I was in charge and I had McDavid and Dreisaitl, I would not be giving up on my season. I would believe, and especially with the way the West has gone this year, again, it looks like a low cutoff for points, lower than normal. I would say to them, guys, I'm not waving the white flag. I may not help you too much because I can't make a dumb trade, but I'm not waving the white flag. I may not help you too much because I can't make a dumb trade, but I'm not waving the white flag.

You're going to have the runway you need to show you can save this. That's what I would do. Maybe you get them a little bit of help and goal, but again, I'm not doing anything crazy. But I'd look at them and say, guys, you want to prove that you can still save it? I'm not selling. Go do it.

Because then you put the onus on... Because again, Jeff, a lot of this is they got to play better. We're all sitting here and blaming the goaltending. And yeah, that's true to some degree, but they are playing terribly. You can say to them, if you really believe that we can rescue this, you guys got to go out and do it. The other thing too that makes me nervous about the way the Oilers are this year is that there have been times you thought they were going to pull themselves out of

it after the Heritage Classic you thought they were going to pull themselves out of it after they won three in a row you thought they'd pulled themselves out of it. That was last week. And now they're back in it again. That's, you know, I have to say that that's one of the things that actually concerns me the most about them is that they seem really fragile. You know, like Colorado, they're going through a lot right now, a lot of injuries and things. They are not fragile.

They are unfragile. But they've also won the Cup. They've also been there. There's a conference in Colorado that does not exist in Edmondson right now. Vegas is not fragile. And maybe that comes with winning the Stanley Cup. But I don't think, like Florida, they're not fragile. No.

Boston, no. Boston, they are not fragile. Nope. And there's a fragility to the Oilers that, honestly, I'm very surprised to see. Very surprised to see. Like watching that game the other night against Carolina, Carolina, when they saw the weakness early, they were like a dog on a bone.

They saw it. That's Rod Rundemore's team, man. That four check. He saw it and they saw it. They are so miserable to play against. We talked about this last podcast, previous podcast, they are so tough to play against because they are all over you.

It's got to be frustrating. And when there's a drip of blood in the water, forget it. Okay, let's park Edmondson. We talked so much about Edmondson. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. Patrick L so much about Edmondson. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. Patrick Laine scores for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Zach Wierenski has a good game. Adam Fantilli has a good game. Columbus wins. The losing streak is over. They beat the Chicago Blackhawks. We've already talked about the Corey Perry Chicago situation. Your thoughts on the game Perry Chicago situation your thoughts on the game against Chicago on Wednesday now Lainey scores the seven to one goal okay so it's not like

the three to two goal that whatever I get it call it an empty calorie goal or whatever he needed that one what were your takeaways from Columbus on Wednesday so one of the first sports books i ever read was like a pamphlet like thing on bobby clark oh so so i was like seven or eight years old at the time so this is like 1977 did it mention yes it definitely mentioned flint okay it definitely mentioned flint flon and you know bobby clark i think had been m been MVP of the league three times already by that point. And the Flyers had won two Stanley Cups, and he was a hell of a player. And there was a story in the book I always remembered. Bill Flett, the cowboy, was struggling for the Flyers.

And Clark said, put him with me. I'll see if I can snap him out of it. And Flett scored 43 goals. So I think about that all the time. Like who's a guy you put someone with so they can feel better. You, you wondered the other day, you were worried about Adam Fantilli. I am not worried about that guy. Park that for one second. Let me describe that. We color that a little bit yeah i'm just worried about having a young player a rookie player in a miserable situation in his first year in the nhl that is a generic statement that is true of any organization how many times have you seen a team say you know what it's not healthy to have our kids here yet we need to shovel out because

i'm gonna use a brian burke analogy here we need to shovel out the barn before we're ready to show the horse that was my concern about adam yeah i'm not worried about him no more shoveling is necessary the kid is ready oh listen the only shoveling the only shoveling is going to come after this podcast only shoveling is on this podcast never mind no listen i i think i said if i first saw fensile when i'm gonna i'm gonna turn into that guy i first saw him when he when he played with the uh the toronto red wings and the gthl and he was head and shoulders above everybody and he was playing against that don mills team that had shane wright and brant clark and brennan offman etc etc etc he almost single-handedly beat one of the best minor hockey teams the gthl has ever produced and he's a

level-headed guy too and you've talked to him i've talked to him lovely family great kid head on his shoulders brave um all of it so i don't worry about him from that point of view my only concern was young kids around negative cultures early in their career. That's all. That was my only point. Yeah, no, I totally understand. I like the fact that I forced you to go into this passionate defense of yourself, but I totally get where you were coming from. The point I'm making is I think it's really instructive

that after Patrick Laine gets benched and he needs to get going, who does he get put with? Hang on. So he's the new Panarin, is what you're saying. You got someone that's struggling, put him with Panarin, or in your case, so you're comparing Patrick Laine to Bill Flett. I think that's an interesting comparison. I don't know if anybody would have made that, I have to say. This is new and unique.

That's the first time that comparison has ever been made. Yes. So you know what? That's true. That is the first time that one has ever been made for sure. And probably the last. Anyway, it was a good night for Columbus. Wieranski hadn't, you know, he'd been really struggling too.

Big night. You know, the other thing is I looked it up. Fantillion and Lani hadn't played a ton. I think they only played 30 minutes before last night, natural stat trick, all credit. And the numbers weren't great. They had good numbers last night. It's tough to be in Columbus right now.

I get it. It's been not a lot of fun. The one thing I would like to say, if there was any doubt that they really, really lucked out by having Adam Fantilli drop on their laps I think that's over I think the kid is just such a stud and watching him Wednesday night was another example I think he's he's a great player for them and he's going to be a great player for them for a long time anyway you know I think this with Columbus look they had a great player for them uh for a long time um anyway you know i think this with columbus look

they had a great night i'm they needed it their fans needed it that's the kind of performance you have to have at home make your fans feel good you know mike priest their president was at practice on tuesday i think it was um he doesn't do that very often whenever he shows up at practice on Tuesday, I think it was. He doesn't do that very often. Whenever he shows up at practice, it's, I don't know if ominous is the right word, but people notice. You know, I think here, you know, I listened to a lot of John Davidson's comments

the last couple of days, read them. He talked a lot about their veterans and I don't think he's wrong. Like some of their kids have played really well. davidson's comments the last couple days read them he talked a lot about their veterans and i don't think he's wrong like some of their kids have played really well i just wonder if this is gonna end with conversations about where are we going here and do our veterans want changes of scenery? And what does that mean? And I'm not going to name names because I think that's a dangerous thing to do. But we've both been around this a long time. You can talk to people who've been in the league a long time.

And eventually you get to a conversation is, do you want something different? And I don't know that that's happened yet but you could see where it would go on this path to do it okay let me um let me circle back to chicago here quickly because we've talked about cory perry and they were on the other end of that rank on wednesday in that uh in that game against the Blue Jackets, and that is Chicago. The other story around Chicago is the end of the season surgery, knee surgery for Taylor Hall. Do you think,

considering that opens up even more cap space and they still have eight open contracts to get to their 50, that they could play third party here in advance of trade deadline? I think they certainly could if they wanted to, but one of the things that they have talked about was they don't want to eat contracts that much anymore.

They did a lot of it, and they reached a point where they didn't really want to do it again. Now, maybe that changes maybe you're offered something that makes you readjust your thinking but the last time i spoke to them that's kind of where they were the other thing i do wonder now too jeff with the blackhawks is you know they lost taylor hall and you wish him the best um he's gonna need surgery i just wonder if they're gonna have to go out and get guys who can play and you wish him the best, he's going to need surgery.

I just wonder if they're going to have to go out and get guys who can play. Just serviceable NHLers to surround Bedard. Obviously, you're not going to give up a huge price for them. Why would you? Unless it's somebody you can keep for a long time. But you need bodies. You have to put Bedard in a position where, I mean, it's already all on him to begin with in a lot of ways,

but you have to help him a little bit. Those players exist, and that could help those teams out by freeing up cap space. And you say, look, we're interested in this guy, and we'll give you a later pick, but you have to give us a pick too. Like, you can still flex your muscles that way. To me, there's an honest hockey reason now why Chicago could do that. And it's not just a dump.

It's accumulating picks and getting yourself some players who just make life a little bit easier for everybody there. Patrick Kane, I would imagine we are pretty close here to a decision from the future Hall of Famer. Any team specifically you've had a chin scratch about lately? I give Kane a lot of credit here, grudging credit, I would say. He has not made this easy on a lot of us. And anytime I'm in a situation like this, I wonder what I'm missing.

Because to me, I think, I definitely believe I'm missing things here. Number one, I think he ultimately wants to win. Number two, I think he wants. The people I've spoken to about this, they believe his preference is to stay somewhere for more than a year. I think he's been asked if he's willing to bend that and maybe he does but they believe the preference is he doesn't only sign for one year I think they've also gotten a sense that he realizes it's easier on his body if he's in the eastern conference and so we're kind of

sitting here and trying to knock everything down based on that. Now, I think Colorado we've talked about. I think they're looking for offense. I could see them making a pitch. I think he was interested in Dallas. I think they prefer to go defense. And they don't have a lot of cap room i know we talked to toronto it doesn't seem like the best way for toronto to spend whatever flexibility they have i know there's some

people who suspect vegas again western travel so i keep coming back to Florida and Detroit and Buffalo. And I know there's some people who suspect the Islanders simply because there's a cloud of secrecy on this. The secrecy king is Lou Lamorello, and Kane is exactly the kind of player the Islanders have been looking for. But the Islanders don't look like they can win right now. So what does Kane think about that? You know, Jeff, to me, I do think he's legitimately thought about Buffalo.

I do think he's legitimately thought about Detroit. To me, the best fit is Florida. But the question is, what can they do contract-wise? They're right at the cap. And the other thing about the Panthers is, what can they do contract-wise? They're right at the cap. And the other thing about the Panthers is there's a real suspicion that they want to keep as much flexibility as possible to see what they can do in the summer. You know, they're trying to sign Montour.

They're trying to sign Forsling you know Reinhardt's having a big year but ever since they made the big trade last year for Kachok people think that Zito he's always got something he's considering. And look, everybody believes he's big in on Kane here. Big. So they look at Zito as, I'm ready to roll the dice. I'm ready to try something you aren't suspecting. There's a big fish in the pond.

I've got my dinghy and my rod and I'm ready to go for it. It's going to take more than a dinghy and a rod and a worm on a hook to try to get Patrick Haney. Something almost significant. My analogies are always terrible. But the team suspect that Florida thinks that way. What's the biggest thing we can try to do? But when it comes to the Panthers again,

it's probably going to mean then because next year you can do an over 35 deal with Kane you can't do it this year even though he just turned 35 he turned 35 after June 30th which is when the league calendar starts for the year so I think that's the thing here if Florida Florida wants to do, if Florida's willing to abandon and give him term, I think we're having a different conversation, but if they're only willing to do a one-year deal

at a low number, people are kind of curious to see how Kane's going to feel about that. Okay, Toronto Maple Leafs. We talked about how this week would bring more clarity on the John Klingberg situation,

and it has to some extent. John Klingberg placed on LTIR by the Maple Leafs. Elliot, what now? Well, I think one of the things here is that the Maple Leafs know they have a process they have to go through before declaring anything because they know that other teams are watching them like a hawk. You know, Toronto's use and other teams' use of LTIR too. There's no question that the whole idea of LTIR right now is a controversial topic.

And teams think that other teams manipulate it. And even though Kyle Dubas now is in Pittsburgh, his LTIR master manipulator, Brandon Pridham, remains in Toronto. And so everybody is watching this. Everybody. Is this going to give Toronto the help they need? So I don't think they can immediately, like the whole thing with Matt Murray was they went through a whole process in the offseason proving to the league that Murray

injuries weren't going to allow him to play and the surgery he was going to get wasn't going to allow him to play and finally the league signed off on it and Murray's on LTIR. So right now that's what they're going through. They're going through the whole process of, okay, he's not having surgery yet. He's going to rehab and they're, and I think they're going to just say, you're not going to be able to declare anything right now. You're going to have to wait and prove that he can't play now do i think ultimately he ends up being shut down yes i i think there's a better than 50 chance that happens but i think the league is going to force them to go through stage by stage by stage by stage until they get there and we're just starting the process now. I mean, the guy played two weeks ago, right?

So there's nothing that happened in two weeks, like no serious injury on the ice that the league is going to let them say he's done. They're going to make him go through a process. Okay, and our process is this. Quick pause, back with the Montana's Thought Line and more on 32 Thoughts to Park. back with the Montana's Thought Line and more on 32 Thoughts to Find.

Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. elliot time now for the montana's thought line montana's barbecue and bar canada's home for barbecue try the ribs 32 thoughts especially on american thanksgiving try the ribs 32 at sportsnet.ca is the email 1-833-311-3232 again email 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca is the email 1-833-311-3232. Again, email 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca, 1-833-311-3232. We've been getting some really good ones and we'll put a couple of them together. These two, Sam in Boston, Wyatt in Colorado,

both have questions about the schedule. And Sam is trying to make that jelly dom name stick by the way if you're not familiar with that check out the last podcast so uh after the rangers recent week off it technically wasn't their bye week i started thinking about the structure of nhl schedules who makes the league schedule every year is it gary bettman an algorithm automated system a combination of both or perhaps does each team get a say in how their schedule is set up? Also, Wyatt in Colorado mentions on Tuesday's radio show, you and I talked about scheduling conflicts

that resulted in no games on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Well, Thursday was the Thanksgiving. The U.S. Thanksgiving and the NHL is dark on that anyway. As part of the explanation, Jeff mentioned that the U.S. teams typically request home games during the week of U.S. Thanksgiving. That's true. I've always assumed that the league basically just tells teams where and when they will be playing after working through building conflicts and CBA requirements. How much say do the NHL teams get in making of the schedule? So there's a couple of different questions in there.

How is it made and how much say do the teams have elliot well why don't you start by talking about this week because you talked a little bit about it so you should start so this week was a unique one so the big one i mean thursday not so much because the nhl is dark on u.s thanksgiving but the situation for tuesday was a unique one and a number of different things conspired, quote unquote, against the NHL or against fans, I suppose, who wanted to watch hockey games.

So the way it worked was there were only three buildings that were available to host games on Tuesday. Vancouver, Calgary, and Arizona. And as I mentioned on the radio, Canadian teams usually get sent to the United States on Thanksgiving week for Thanksgiving Eve and Black Friday games because that's when American teams request games.

And Arizona didn't want to play back-to-back games Tuesday and Wednesday. 12 teams playing Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. So you couldn't schedule a Tuesday or that would mean four games in five nights. Elliot, and you're a CBA expert. I know before you tuck yourself in every night, you read the CBA and you know that is a no-fly zone. And also the four teams who went to Sweden were not available.

That's why there were no games on Tuesday. That's good stuff. You did a lot of work here. Just a unique circumstance. That's all the Tuesday was. I know it was kind of a bummer because fans like, well, I have to talk to my family today.

Really? Thanks NHL. But that was just a scheduling quirk. But do you want to go over the, do you want to go over how tough a job steve hats of petros has with the nhl and all of his scheduling grids and are and requests for dates and the like well basically what happens is the league a long time out from when the schedule gets released which is usually around the end of june beginning of july the league will ask the teams for dates. Let us know when your buildings

are available and if there's any special requests that you have. And that's basically what it comes down to. You submit a list of dates that your building is available and the league will work around and get you as much as they possibly can. Now, there are some teams that absolutely make requests. You know, the Canucks used to go to the league. They might still do. I haven't asked in a while. But they used to go to the league with a plan that their sleep doctor used to set for them and say, all right, this is the optimal schedule we have based on where we are.

And they would try to get it. They wouldn't always be successful, but they would state their case. There are some teams, especially a lot of the U.S. teams, where three levels of football really matter. High school football, college football, and the NFL. We know the NFL is king right now. It's unbeatable. But if you have big nights for high school football and college football, they would ask for as many home games as possible in the second half of the year. They did not want, because that's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. They wanted as few games to deal with those leagues as possible. And so that absolutely happened.

There was a team and they said, you can use the example, but we don't want you to name who we are. And I said, fine. They said that they had a big night in their community that was a Bible study night. And I will say this. This was about 15 years ago.

And they always said to me, and so I didn't even check if that's still the case. But I remember them telling me once that locally in their market, there was a certain night of the week. Their research did. There was a lot of Bible study among their fan base, and they didn't like home games on that day. So they would ask the league, can we not have home games on that day? So there are things like that that come up all the time.

However, what the league will tell you is there are fewer and fewer available nights every year. Teams are just packing these buildings, especially post-COVID. Maybe you have an NHL team. Maybe you have an NBA team. You have concerts. And some of these buildings are the only venues in their cities where you can host big concerts. So there are teams who say there's less flexibility than ever.

I've asked the league about that, and the one thing the league will say back is there's less flexibility than ever for a reason because teams are booking their buildings, and there's less dates for us to make the schedule work. So it's a challenge. Nobody's ever happy, but it's a challenge, no question. Thanks to both you gentlemen for those similar yet a little bit different questions about the schedule. Greg from Fort Francis, Ontario. Question for either of you. Are the teams compensated when they travel and play two games in the Global Series or even

for the heritage classic games the teams are not generating revenue from playing at their home rink as well as the increased travel costs to europe does the nhl compensate the team for these events i think it's great to showcase the game and the nhl in these events but at the end of the day the teams are a business and money talks thanks greg from fort francis well greg it is a great question and for example if you are the home team in a global series game you get buy out of a home gate you notice who was not a home team in either game the toronto maple leafs because then the league would have to buy the maple leafs out of a home gate so the teams that they played and

they played minnesota and they played Minnesota and they played Detroit, those teams, the league says, okay, on average, you make X for a home game. We're going to cut you a check for that amount of money. And now we're in control. And, you know, costs, you know, costs are part of the overall salary cap management the cap is revenue minus costs right so the players pay 50 of those costs uh that you know to take overseas unless now i should say i don't know if like for example the promoter who who puts on the global series games or whoever it is i don't know if they pay the cost for that let me qualify this because i'm flying blind on answering that question but i i do know that generally costs are split 50 50 so i hope that's

the answer to your question because that's what i could tell you for the for the players themselves outside of the teams um when it comes you get you get per diem well that you like but for like for things like winter Classic or Heritage, I don't think they get anything extra at all. But I do wonder about things like Global Series, going to Sweden, going to Australia, if they do, I don't know, like an enhanced per diem for something like that.

That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that one. I'm just throwing it out there because I've always wondered about it. if for something that's sort of above and beyond if you get an enhanced per diem i don't know the answer to that you get to appear on a swedish talk show in an undershirt that is your bonus uh well women pinch your muscles well women right your muscles let's not forget about that as well um here's an interesting one alex from towassen we're gonna get to a couple of voicemails but first this one alex from towassen

hey gents what happens if a coach is fired with years remaining on his contract and the same team wants to bring him back for instance if the oilers had a new gm that came in for next season and the new gm wanted jay woodcroft geez i wonder why this question came up today would the coach be forced back behind the bench as he is still under contract with that team shades of harold ballard and roger nielsen in the 70s elliot friedman i know why this question came up today because i had people sending me this dm on on wednesday night as the oldest were losing i don't know the answer to that question now for example there are coaches who um they get fired by a team and the team says you still got a scout for us like if we want to want you to put together a report on someone you've got to do it

but generally there's a you know you can't force them to do work that they're not contractually obligated to do. I have never heard of this occurring. As a matter of fact, I only heard about it happening on one occasion. And I actually forgot to ask Ken Hitchcock about this. When he was fired as the head coach in Dallas, there was someone at the World world, and this was before I was doing like insider duties, but at the world championships, the rumor was that Dallas was going to consider bringing him back. And obviously it didn't happen. Nothing ever occurred for it, but I've never heard of this occurring before. It is a really interesting question my theory would be that if they wanted to bring him back and the coach agreed it would probably be the same contract but i don't know

that for sure um but it's a great it's a great question and actually, I was reading this week, usually in these contracts, there's something called offset language, which means that if a coach is fired and another team hires them or we put them on TV, the team saves the money based on what the other team or we pay them. Like, for example, if, say, I don't know, pick a coach gets fired this week

and we say, come on Hockey Night in Canada, and we pay them $10,000 to work one Saturday night, the team saves $10,000. Well, last week in college football, a guy named Jimbo Fisher got fired as the coach at Texas A&M, and he's going to walk away with $76 million. And the reports are that there's no offset language in that contract so he'll he'll make his money plus whatever he gets next texas a&m should be looking for some new lawyers because i think their current lawyer is lionel hutz

there's the truth and then the truth but there's the truth and the truth that's good love that line now the nhl has stepped in before when teams try to quote unquote steal another coach for cheap right like a coach gets fired. That has happened before. Two years remaining on a deal and another team steps in and says, hey, I can get this guy for $800,000. For $1. For $1 because you're still getting paid from the other team.

The NHL will step in and say, hold on a second here. Let's negotiate and work on something appropriate here. So you're essentially not stealing a coach for cheap and having another team pay for it. Yes, there is a formula, a market value formula. I think that gets bent in some directions here and there, but there generally is a quote unquote market value formula. Yes. Let's get a couple of voicemails here to wrap up the Montana's thought line. First, we go to Quad Cities and Kyle. I was listening to you guys talk about the Devils and Rangers game the other night and about how those two teams don't like each other and how it really stems from the playoffs a year ago.

And I've been thinking for a while, it just seems like the NHL's rivalries have been kind of dumbed down a little bit and lacking some muster. It seems like we need a little more maybe nastiness to the games. And by nastiness, I'm not talking about goonery or anything like that. It's just more trash talk and hard body checking and that kind of thing. So I was just wondering what you guys think about the current state of rivalries in the NHL. Do you think they're fine the way they are,

or do you think the NHL needs to kind of promote them a little bit more? And if in that regard, you think they do what you think the league could try to do in terms of getting rivalries back important as they used to be when I was growing up back in the 90s so anyway thanks again guys appreciate all that you do it's a great question and I think I feel a lot the same way like like a lot of the hate is gone from the regular season there's no question about it but what builds up hate playoff rivalries and you know like i said i think i think the rangers and the devils they really hate each other and i think that's awesome i think the avalanche

and the golden knights i think they really hate each other and that's awesome like it'll never it'll never be like the 80s where you had bench clearing brawls or the 70s like bench clearing brawls. And, you know, the other thing now too, Jeff, is simply that, you know, fighting isn't as big a part of the game anymore. It's up this year and it's interesting to see it, but it's still not anywhere near the way it was 30 or 40 years ago. So I think you have to find your hate in other ways and you know what jeff you know we talked about shisterkin popping off about the devils like did they win the cut no like big freaking deal maybe that's the way that the that the league is going to change is that players aren't going to bother to hide their feelings anymore and they're just going to say what's on their mind. And,

and that'll be the way that the rivalries perk up with the talk. Like, like you look at the NBA, there, there was a wild scene on Wednesday night with Chris Paul and a referee named Scott Foster. Like I cannot believe the NBA allows that to continue that Scott Foster clearly hates Chris Paul and continually throws him out of games and uh like his paul's record in games when foster referees it's it's like 500 points worse than his

career record as a player it's it's really something and you know he threw them out of the game on wednesday night and and you have the best take on this of anybody I've ever heard, and that is that south of the border, the whole world is just a stage, and everybody accepts that. But I can't believe that the NBA allows that. But that's the way the league functions on the drama. Like the NBA of all the leagues has the most drama and some of it is crazy, but it builds up the interest.

And I don't know if we'll ever get there. I just don't know if that's possible, but I think we all feel if, you know, people just drop their guard a little bit and gave us a little more into what they were feeling it would be nice and spicy and maybe that's the way you'll build up the rivalries two things need to happen for it to really really hit one and you already mentioned this earlier playoffs between two teams and two geography three is the bonus and that is someone doing something dumb but if you have the first two you have the beginnings of it like when seattle came in or one of this what was one of the selling points for seattle instant rivalry with vancouver right and one day somewhere down the road,

who knows, maybe even this season. Maybe they're going to play for the Rain Cloud Cup. Okay. The Stereotype Cup? Oh, well done, Elliot. Okay. Whether it's Buffalo, Toronto, maybe, and this might even be a stretch,

but nonetheless, I'll throw it out there. And at times it's been spicy, Minnesota and Winnipeg. Playoffs, geography geography someone does something dumb boom we have a spicy rivalry between teams last voicemail goes to tim oh just mentioned winnipeg tim and the peg just wanted to hear your thoughts uh um i've been noticing that connor mcdavid seems to not be tucking in his jersey anymore. Just wondering if this is something you guys picked up on. I just feel like he was always a big tuck-in guy. And yeah, just noticed that he's going no tuck lately.

Anyways, that's all. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on that. Thanks. Love the pod. Take care, guys. Bye. Tim, thank you. Do you have a thought on Jersey Tuck?

You know what? I'm just doing a search right now. Technically, the Jersey Tuck violation is still on the books. They could still call it. Yes, which has never been called. I remember. No, no, no. I'll tell you a funny story.

It has been called. It was just like 10 years ago. Alexander Svitov got called on a Jersey talk. I remember everybody went crazy. How do you remember this? Trust me, I love stuff like this. I remember Malkin went nuts about it, and rightfully so.

I think a lot of players did. Like, how can you call this? This is ridiculous. Like, the NHL has a sort of uniform policy, and they want everything to be you know all the equipment to be covered up etc my own personal theory is they want the uniform they want the jersey out for one day uh they can use the jerseys as billboards to sell advertising call me a conspiracy theorist elliot but that's kind of what i think here um but they they can

call it but what they'll do is they'll ask the player to untuck the jersey. And then if the player doesn't, then they'll call it. It won't be an automatic call. That's the way it would work. But yeah, Alexander Svitov was called. So I was in a dressing room

and I saw the poster. This is the way we expect you to be dressed. And I was like, like ah that's an interesting article or interesting thing i can write something about this so i did i wrote a piece about this is how it's going to look and glenn healy who was still working with me at the time called me like 10 minutes after the article appeared and said this is the dumbest thing you've ever written. They are never going to call this. And I said, they're telling me they're going to take it seriously, Glenn. I don't know. He goes, you will never see a call. And until today, when you just told me this, I never saw a call. He was right. But you know what it did? What's that i am contracted to write one blog a week that one allowed me to fulfill my contractual contractual obligations so you know

what i'm looking at this right now he okay i am looking at some recent highlights from mcdavid and tim you are right he does not have the tuck. His Jersey is down. And you want to know what my theory on that is? Try anything in a slump. That's one good theory, but it's not mine. Okay.

I wonder if he's wearing something to protect whatever injury he's got. Hmm. Ooh. I like the way you think, Elliot. You're snuggling up on my side of the grassy knoll now. I like that. Interesting. Tim in Winnipeg, thanks for the call. Kyle in Quad Cities, thanks for the call as well. That was the Montana's Thought Line,

Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue. Back to wrap up the pod moments okay Elliot um considering this week well we just had Tim in Winnipeg uh ask about the Jersey Tuck situation with Connor McDavid and you put forth a certain theory. Some might call it a conspiracy theory. I've talked about my theory that one day the NHL would like to use as much of the jersey as possible to sell advertising, and that's why they want that uniform look and that uniform feel. um what about as we talk about jerseys on the 60th anniversary week of one of the great conspiracies of all time who shot jfk you have a conspiracy theory on the leak of the winter classic jerseys by the way have you watched that new documentary on the jfk shooting i've listened

to the new sold out o'b, Rob Reiner podcast about it. I just started episode three this afternoon. I hear it's quite good. It's really, really well done. It's excellent. Yeah, it's really well done. I think Rob Reiner has generally gone insane, but this sounds like it's quite...

It's well done. It's quite good. And Sold Out O'Brien. Fascinating, fascinating topic. Sold Out O' it is fantastic too on this one there's no question in my mind people think oh this accidentally got leaked no it's leaked on purpose and i actually think it's smart build up the buzz build up the buzz i will say this a friend of mine who used to be a fan of the Seattle Supersonics didn't like that it was a Utah Jazz player who wore it because I forgot the Jazz and the Supersonics were big rivals.

Gary Payton and Sean Kemp against Karl Malone and John Stockton. And he didn't like that. But you know what I thought was very interesting about that whole scenario jeff who owns the utah jazz uh ryan smith i don't think these things happen by accident you're all now you're totally going jfk i know was it the you're rubbing off on me the cubans uh or the the mafia uh who was it after all elliot you're you're really rubbing off on me in a bad way but it was aw um which i i know a lot of young fans think is really cool so like there this is

not an accident this is not an accidental leak they They do it on purpose. I will say this. I was worried about the Vegas jersey, but when I saw the actual reveal, the official one, I liked it a lot more. I still think the Seattle one is awesome. I know. You want the strings. Well, I do want the strings, but then technically,

by and large, they did not wear strings. I just think strings give it a real nice old timey feel but i think i think they look really good they look fantastic seattle ones look so good they look so good um congratulations seattle you nailed it on this one then they've nailed most things though so no surprise there okay uh on that we'll wrap up and thank you for listening once again sharing your time with us. We always appreciate it. That's it for us here on behalf of Elliot and old Dom signing off. Enjoy your weekend of hockey.

You'll hear from us again on Monday. Adjourned.