32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Three. Goals. Away.

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman open the podcast by delving into Kyle's time in Montreal to cover the Canadiens. That bleeds into a conversation about the teams dealing with late season injuries (11:47). Elliotte points out an quirk about the Avs schedule (19:36) and the fellas revisit Kyle's point that Connor Hellebuyck should be given Hart consideration (23:20). Elliotte updates the latest surround Rick Tocchet's future with the Vancouver Canucks (31:17) and they delve into the Anthony Duclair-Patrick Roy drama on Long Island (40:37). The fellas discuss Jalen Chatfield escaping discipline for his take down of Connor McMichael (50:48) and the Final Thought focuses on the new Rogers-NHL broadcast rights deal (59:21). Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions and respond to your voicemails in the Thought Line (1:10:16). The final segment focuses on Alex Ovechkin being only 3 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's goal scoring record (1:39:00)Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

35 seconds to go in the period. There's Ovechkin. Score! Career goal number 892. What a perfect pass here by Jacob Chickert, right in the wheelhouse. Ovechkin shoots it back the other way against Freddie Anderson. He's ready, stick cocked, and just absolutely lets a dart go right up over the pad. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X. Kyle and Elliot back with you again.

Dom Schiamatti, our producer, and Elliot to quote the legendary public address announcer Michelle Lacroix, springtime in Montreal. There may not be anything more beautiful. We were reminded of that this week, weren't we? Tell us about your beautiful day in Montreal, Kyle. So the beauty was really inside the arena because it wasn't a great day weather wise here Thursday. It was beautiful in Toronto. We had them, we had a monsoon on Wednesday night and all of a sudden Thursday was beautiful. Oh good, good. It started to get better as the day went on. But we saw, we talked about it when we were here in Montreal. I was in Montreal Thursday doing the Canadians Bruins game. When we were here in Montreal for Four Nations, we talked about what this city can become

when it's at its peak of hockey fandom. And you know what's interesting? I had a conversation with Sam Montalbo on Wednesday asking just about that experience being with Team Canada. So he was the third goalie for that tournament. So for the games, like in Montreal, for example, he watched from up on the press box. And I guess he was like, especially that Canada-US game on that Saturday, he was taking video when things, when all hell was breaking loose early on and George Napier was getting the crowd going and sending it to some of his Canadian's teammates saying,

I've never seen this building like this before. And now as a team, the Canadians, they're getting a taste of it here the last little while. Obviously with the comeback against Florida on Tuesday, that was kind of unexpected and its own kind of pop and raw emotion there. And then Thursday night, I mean the Bruins, that lineup card, it is unrecognizable in a lot of cases compared to what we've been accustomed to seeing with that team. Talked about that at length and what happened at the deadline.

But regardless, one of the oldest rivalries in sport. And so you have that already coming in. And Canadians, you know, it's the old saying, I know you've used it before, Elliot, sometimes you're the hammer and sometimes you're the nail and the Canadians to their credit, they were the hammer here on Thursday night and they let it be known early.

Like there was really no questioning what the end result was gonna be here Thursday night. And it's wonderful to see the crowd be behind this group again at this time of the year. I mean, Brendan Gallagher was almost beside himself postgame when he was asked like just how much have you missed this type of scene this late in the season. It's been a while for him. He's seen it when it's at its peak. And it was a neat one to just sit back and witness here again, Elliot, and Gallagher for that matter. That line, him, Josh Anderson, and Christian Dvorak, some of the older members of the team, two of the guys that have been

around for a long time within the organization. It's been like speaking with our colleague Eric Engels. They were like the redemption line the last little while and they were terrific and got things started for for Montreal Thursday against the Bruins and they really didn't look back like they're they're rolling right now. They, why in Martin Saint Louis used Thursday morning was the learning is done. Now it's time to execute now we're seeing it Christian Dvorak is like a Hollywood monster villain that you thought was dead like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger

Back to life back to life Montreal fans wanted him out of town in the worst way this season Gallagher as much as you may have struggled at times, they love Gallagher. Anderson as much as they struggled at times, I think they really liked Anderson you saw moments there where he was a favorite. Dvorak. They were all over him. I, you know, I remember we did a podcast earlier this year, where we talked about Dvorak's salary this season, where he's cash over cap.

His cap hit is below his actual salary. His salary was backloaded on his deal. So even though his cap hit was one number, you actually owed him more in salary and that made him harder to trade and people would send me notes saying When do you think teams will say okay Christian Dvorak salary is low enough that somebody will trade for him and He is completely Rewritten the story. I mean Gallagher that everybody knows his situation the birth of their first child, the passing of his mother.

So you're glad to see him in a place where he feels really good. Anderson wasn't practicing for most of the year because he was just too injured to do so. He's now able to do some skates and you're glad he's he's feeling good but I would say this from beginning to end of this year the guy I'm happiest for is Dvorak because nobody was getting it more on that roster than Dvorak was. Columbus had a bad loss they got pounded by Colorado who clinched their playoff berth tonight so know, all of a sudden you're looking at this and Columbus is four back.

They've got to go into Toronto on Saturday night and Toronto has to be smelling blood in their Atlantic division. You know, they beat Florida this week, Tampa lost in Ottawa on Thursday night. You know, the Maple Leafs are at the same amount of games. All three of these teams have played 75 games and Toronto's three points ahead. Now, of course, if you're a Maple Leaf fan,

you look at this, you say, okay, they're three points up, they're playing really well. Oh no, we're gonna lose eight nothing. Like that's the way Toronto fans think, but Toronto can absolutely grab a stranglehold on their division. And so, Montreal, you're still, you're two points up on the Rangers. You don't have the tiebreaker, but this Canadian team, they have all the mojo going right now. the mojo going right now.

And if they win, they control their destiny. That's all you can ask for at this time of year. Ottawa now controls their own destiny. A chocolos win against Tampa. And I'll tell you something Kyle, I really liked the Lightning. I think they may be the best team in the Eastern Conference. I know that's an insult to Washington. Yeah. Which has been the best team in the Eastern Conference. I know that's an insult to Washington, which has been the best team all year. Capitals fans aren't going to like that, but they've got other things to be excited about right now and we'll get to that later in the pod.

But I've looked at Tampa Bay since the deadline and I really like how they look. I do wonder if they're deep enough on the blue line, but the pieces they've got, I like how it all fits. That's a big win for Ottawa, very big win for Ottawa, which needed to stop the bleeding a bit. But all of a sudden you're looking at the East and you know, Columbus needs a stop the bleeding win. Well, they need a couple. They play back to back this weekend in

Toronto in Ottawa. Yes, like they need. I think if you're Columbus, you're really sitting there saying we need three out of four. We need three out of four at least. The Rangers, you just don't know what to expect from them on a given night. No idea what you're going to get. And to me, Detroit, every time they get close, you know, to me that was, that's got to be the most frustrating thing for Detroit. You're seconds away from winning that game in St. Louis, ending the losing streak.

They tie it and then you lose in overtime. And that's been Detroit the last few years. You get close, but you can never get over the top never you know one thing I had so Jacob Fowler that's gonna happen he's gonna sign with the Canadians although he's gonna go to Laval this year on a PTO those reports were all over on Thursday night and that's gonna happen I've had some lightning fans ask me about Isaac Howard. One of the things I wondered there was I was trying to do some back of the napkin math,

which is always a really bad idea, but I tried to do it anyway. And they don't really, unless they do some roster maneuvering, they don't have the cap room to sign Howard right now. But the one thing that someone, so I was asking around, you know, what's going on here with Howard? I thought maybe they might be waiting for a week or two to sign him. And someone said to me, they don't think that's necessarily the case. But the one thing this individual did say to me was that Tampa Bay is still kind of promoting Isaac Howard for one of the, for the Hobie Baker. He's one of the three finalists as player of the year in the NCAA. And they said to me, if Tampa Bay didn't think they were going to sign Isaac Howard or didn't have a chance to do it, they probably wouldn't be promoting him for the Hobie Baker anymore.

Okay, a couple of things as we've won through the Eastern Conference. First off, you mentioned the Kachukles sends. Is there anything you're hearing about his status in terms of how long they could be without their captain down the stretch here? They don't seem to be overly concerned about it. That's one of the things that I've noticed. This season has taken its toll on him. And this is what happens when you have a cushion. You find a way to try to take advantage of it.

And that's what they're trying to do. At this point in time time you're always looking at where are the worries. The other thing too right now is that Kyle nobody can be put on LTIR. Like all these teams are past 75, 72 games right? When you go past the 10 games in 24 day threshold which we are at now because everybody's at 74 75 games can't put guys on LTI are Because LTI are ends at the end of the regular season so that makes it Even harder to kind of figure out what's going on so I go by how concerned do people sound They don't sound concerned about Brady Kachak

They don't sound concerned about Brady Kachak. The Oilers don't sound concerned about Conor McDavid or Trent Frederick, so I'm not worried about that guy. I think one of the ones that I'm not that concerned about Neil Peonk, It doesn't seem like that's one that the Jets are overly concerned about. I think if there's one there's a bit more mystery to at this point in time, it's Velardi. I don't know yet what the timeline is there. We still have a couple weeks left in the regular season. The one that's really interesting to me is Hurdle. And Hurdle showed up in a non-contact jersey for the Golden Knights on Thursday at their skate. I have to say it's quicker.

It's good news for Vegas in the sense that I know when he got hurt, they were really worried about it. So I like to see him here. I'm curious to see how long that's going to go for. When does he go back into the regular jersey and when do we see him playing? Because it's always good news for the player and the team. I like to see guys come back from injury, but this is definitely quicker least to see him than some people were expecting so that's a good thing

so Kyle other injuries the oilers have been battling a lot of it and Nobody like to see Leon dry side'll leave early Thursday night against San Jose Chris Knoblock post game telling Jean Principe, no update, we'll know more tomorrow. You know, the thing you worry about with a guy like Dry Cytl is he's just been out. So you don't want it to be anything nagging. Like now you shut it down. If this is like, I think right now with dry saddle, you're really, really careful. They don't seem that worried about McDavid. They seem to have an idea here. They're just like Connor relax, and

he'll be back around the end of the regular season. Same thing with all their other guys at home Frederick, they seem to have plans for all these guys. But now you have dry saddle back. You're kind of thinking okay. We don't have to worry about this anymore Now you're going into the careful zone with dry saddle and the other one Florida Matthew Kachak like Sounds like he's been like Johnny Cash. He's been everywhere man Going for treatment all over the place and you know we'll see like I was watching that video of him skating the other day and it's always important to see everyone

take a step but it's not like he's got the afterburners on right now out there so we still wait to see for him you're just sitting there saying as long as he's ready for game one you're good and you can deal with that. Let me ask you something. What's up? If Tampa played Florida in the first round, who's the favorite? Florida.

I know you're thinking about the injury uncertainties. Yeah. Don't get Ekblad the injury uncertainties. Yeah. Don't get ECPLAD til game three either. Yeah. That's also a part of it. I'm still Florida right now. But when does who the favorite is really matter?

You just like the ice cream better in Florida than Tampa. That is true. That is true. That is true. Now that I think about it, that is true. And I love going to Tampa, but South Florida's got the edge of soft serve. And don't sit there like you're not thinking the exact same thing.

Actually, I don't know. Like I, I'm just an ice cream consumer. I don't know it as well as you do. Don't plead ignorance. I've seen you turn your nose up when the ice cream's not up to snuff. I just, I know that you have a video of me eating ice cream that I hope never makes it to the internet. Just keep being a nice guy, Mr. Friedman, just keep being a nice guy Couple other injury notes Nick Elers got hurt

But Scott Arneal said he was fine keeps getting hit with pucks I think was the line I just saw Those I have to say those Winnipeg guys. We talked about them a little bit, but they went all out You know, what's Anthony Stewart's dad's line? Are you a team or are you a club? The Jets to protect that shutout for Comrie. They were a team They were diving in front of Pucks in a game that they knew they were gonna win They wanted Comrie to get that shutout. That's a team Not a club and also future Canadian Olympian Dylan Holloway got hurt tonight. That one looked a bit pretzely and hope he's okay.

Jim Montgomery, he didn't have much to say about that postgame so we'll see where that develops over the next couple of days. That's a big one. Kids had a great year. We should mention 11 straight now for the blues. They may never lose again. You know what's going to happen now? They're going to lose to Colorado on Saturday and those blues fans, they're going to want to kill you. I thought watching that game against Detroit with the Jersey matchup, I was waiting for Steve Iserman to come cruising over the blue line to uncork a slap shot over the shoulder of John Casey.

Did it not remind you of the playoffs back in the day? Now these blue fans are really gonna kill you. Took me right back to that old highlight with the Joe Casey sign. What other painful St. Louis memories can you bring up as part of this? We were just waxing poetic about Jobu the other day the one now I think we're gonna see a lot of talk about is

Landiscag and You know pointing out what did Eric Johnson say this week? Well when he was on with TNT there Wednesday said it's a a matter of when not if. He's cracking jokes about all the cameras that have been around filming the Landiscah documentary. It just seems like internally there's a sense that things are in a very good place right now and there's a realistic hope to see their captain come springtime. Well everyone's rooting for it right? Everybody wants it. Now somebody sent me a note on Thursday they said you know Drewann got hurt the other night in their game against Chicago. Could they put him on LTIR and

activate Landiscock? Well the answer right now is no you can't. Like we just discussed it's too late to put guys on LTIR so One of the things I think everybody kind of expected was if he was to be activated it would be in the playoffs Because Colorado would have to do an LTIR dance And it's complicated at this time of year They would have to do an LTIR dance to get them activated now. Have you looked at Colorado's schedule, Kyle? Are you doing it right now? What do you notice when you get there?

What do you notice about Colorado's schedule? It is maybe the weirdest schedule in the NHL this year. End of season. They play their final game on April the 13th, like four days before the final day of the season. That is the Elliott Friedman April schedule. Every year I take about four or five days off right before the playoffs. This year for me, I'm taking off the 14th to the 18th, just like thevalanche the Avalanche in the eye and I have the same schedule so Now you and I have talked about privately how you know the playoffs begin the 19th

I'm under the impression that anybody that plays on the Thursday the 17th won't play on the 19th So it seems and those are a lot of Eastern teams, LA plays on the 17th, that make up game against Calgary from the Wildfires. So if they play the Oilers as it looks, it doesn't look like the Oilers are gonna open up on the Saturday. We'll see how it all changes.

But I really look at this and Colorado, because they have all those days off, opens up for it. If they play Dallas, Dallas' last game is on the Wednesday. So that's not an issue there. Winnipeg, who is Colorado's other potential opponent, their last game is also on the Wednesday. So I think you have to look at this and think about the possibility the Avalanche open up on the Saturday and I wonder if that's gonna be the Landiscau game game one of the playoffs oh man

and Landiscau gets and and the other thing too is if like they really want him to practice hard. I mean, he's there. We see him as, as Johnson joked about, but you know, they go Chicago, Columbus, back to back, they play St. Louis on Saturday. Then they get a couple home games next week, Vegas, Vancouver, and then that back to back Saturday, Sunday, Kings, Anaheim to end their season. Then they'll probably get a day or two off and he can practice hard

for three or four days before their game one. And again, this is all me making this up. I want to stress this is totally me making this up. But as you mentioned, listening to Eric Johnson and looking at their schedule and knowing their challenges to activate them during the year. If you're guessing here, I could see a lot worse guesses than game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs. That would be really something.

And whether it's, you say, against Dallas or against Winnipeg, the fact that you point that out, I mean, I don't know if there are many big games for a team that's on pace to capture the President's Trophy when they're playing game number 76 of the season but that felt like a big win for the Jets over Vegas on Thursday night given Dallas breathing down their neck the loss the night before in Los Angeles and I know barring something unforeseen happening Eric Comrie's not going to be the guy for them come playoff time felt like a big result for the team and the goaltender Thursday in Vegas don't you? Yeah if you're the Jets

you've got to be sitting here and saying to yourselves what do we got to do here we've led wire to wire we've been excellent all season and the Stars just won't leave us alone. There's still four points back. The stars are, as you mentioned, that was a huge win for the Jets and a huge win for Comrie. You're totally right about that. Winnipeg, I was thinking a lot about what you said on the pod earlier this week about Hellebock and How you were he was your pick for the heart? I? Was looking at this game Vegas

And you look like if you look at Winnipeg schedule they go Vegas Utah and Vamilka by the way, we should mention him, he's played like a thousand games in a row. I think- That's right. He's basically in the hall. He's in the hall 2025.

That's right. We should say he's 482 starts away from breaking the record. But for a guy to start 19 in a row like Vamilka has, that's insane. And he's not getting enough notice for that. Like 19 in a row in this day and age, there are sports scientists writing angry emails to the Utahns right now about how this offends their sensibilities.

But they go Vegas, Utah, St. Louis, Dallas, Chicago, Edmonton, Anaheim, right? And only one of those is a back-to-back for the Jets. So I was sitting here saying that as good as an argument you made for Hellebuck to win the Hart Trophy, as long as they kept playing him to hold off Dallas, there were plenty of opportunities for him to play here and gain even more of a stranglehold on potential votes. And what do they do? They start Comrie in Vegas, one of the toughest buildings in the league, and he shuts them

out. And the other thing about that too is it's not like the Jets gave them a lot in that game. I mean the shots were ended up being 26-22 for the Golden Knights but that was more of a score effects one. They were 19-12 Winnipeg after two periods and Vegas out shot them 14-3 in the third. Like for a lot of that game the Jets didn't give up that much. You know Comrie I thought that's a huge win for him, a huge win for them, but on some level the Jets have to be sitting there saying, what do we have to do to get Dallas to go away here? And nobody, I guarantee this to you here, if they'll, if they do,

they'll deal with it, but neither of these teams want to see the avalanche. The stars don't want to see them. The jets don't want to see them. Colorado has looked dynamite since the trade deadline. And you look at look, the jets are a hell of a team. The stars are a hell of a team. But that is no reward. Like, Batman talks about how he doesn't like expanding the playoffs because you should be rewarded for how well you do in the regular season.

Hey, great regular season, Dallas or Winnipeg. Here's your reward, the Colorado Avalanche in round number one, congratulations. And by the way, Gabe Landiscock is suiting up for game one too, so good luck. Seriously, good luck with that. Yes, well. Good luck with that.

If you're saying Tampa could be the best team in the East, for me right now, my money has Colorado looking like the best team in the West at this juncture. Can I say one more thing about Montreal here before we? Oh yeah, absolutely. You can. So Wednesday I go to their practice. It's an optional skate, which has been the norm for them.

They've had a lot of the off day practices. A lot of them have been optionals down the stretch. A lot of teams are doing it. A lot of optional morning skates. Lane Hudson was out there for well over an hour. There are about 12, 14 guys probably total that went out and skated for some period of time, but he was out there for well over an hour.

Like there was the story last week about how they basically had to like Rod Bryndemore style, lock up the rink and say, you can't come skate here today, like you just need to stay off the ice. And then he was on the ice Wednesday morning too, during a very optional skate prior to the game against Boston. It completely flies in the face of, you know, the idea of when you're growing up, you need to do different sports. He loves being on the ice all the time. And it's always there's, you can tell there's a purpose behind what he's doing too. It was just something, again, from the outside, you're reading about it certainly as the hype around him has built down

the stretch here and how much work he puts into his craft. But to see it up close here for the last couple of days, Elliot, it was just it was quite something to see. And and really impressively, you tell I just the ice is his sanctuary. Like that's that's where he's most comfortable. It was it was neat to take in. It's very hard to be great at something if you aren't if you don't love it and you're not passionate about Working at it. I'm not surprised I'm not surprised at all and

We mentioned Fowler going to Montreal We're you I think it was you who asked was it you asked me this week about the Hudson Brothers or was it? Fuda and Marquesi who asked me this week about the other Hudson brothers? It might have been the other two there in between taking chaps at me. All of you guys blend into me. All of you guys blend into me. Chaps with me about the end season cup. By the way, half of it's almost over. If Dallas beats Pittsburgh on Saturday,

Mark Hazy wraps up the most dates. Yes, he ran away with it in the end. Like he liked me. He did, I had a big lead, he caught me and he ran away. Yeah, he liked me, we both started slow, I remained slow, and he went into hyperdrive. I think saying that you stayed slow is an insult to the word slow.

Slow doesn't even do it justice. I was listening to you guys just peel me apart on the radio this week. Were you listening live or was it, did you hear it later? Yeah, I was like five minutes behind. But like my teeth were clenched, like I wanted to suplex someone through five pieces of drywall.

I was seething, listening to that. You weren't even slow, you were inert. It was, yeah, it was a year of inertia. I went nowhere. It's pretty funny. What were we talking about? Oh, the Hudson Brothers. Oh, the Hudson Brothers, yeah.

So they were, they, so Mark, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. Cole, I think most people are kind of expecting him to go back to college for another year. We'll see. I'm not sure there, but Quinn, the older brother, you know, he's obviously going to be playing in the Frozen 4. I think there might be something for him after. He's undrafted. I heard that there was something for him, but obviously no one's going to talk about that while he's still playing. So we'll see how that all works out. All right. Keep our eye on that one.

Speaking of not wanting to talk about things contractually in the moment, Rick Tocket and the Vancouver Canucks, Elliot. So we had talked about this, I think it was last pod, right? Just the, there would have been a couple pods ago in the aftermath of John Tortorella being fired. Naturally, there's the links between Tocket and Philadelphia. He was a very popular player there when he played for the Flyers, but that one-year club option that remains on his contract. You wrote about it at Sportsnet.ca a couple of days ago, Elliot. So bring us all up to speed

of the temperature and climate in Vancouver and what's going on between the head coach and the organization as we move forward towards a season which looks like Vancouver will not be returning to the postseason. Yeah, that was an ugly one on Wednesday night that lost to Seattle. That was just an ugly, ugly game.

And you could really see it on the faces of Quinn Hughes post-game, and also Marcus Patterson. Those were tough scrums post-game, really tough scrums. So I think some of this is in reaction to comments I'd made, whether on the podcast or on the radio show, or I was also on Donnie on Dolly on Monday in Vancouver. And one of the reasons I think this story dropped on my lap is because I made a comment and again, I don't remember exactly where I made it that I couldn't see a situation where the Conox were gonna make talk a coach next year under his option and I think that the Conox have not been happy

with The noise around talk it in Philadelphia and between hearing some of that and what I said, I think they've made their displeasure quite clear around the league, potentially to the Flyers, to the league itself. Like I think this was their way of coming out and saying, hey, you know, Rick Tauquette is our coach. As Tauquette has said himself, the season's not over. We have some contractual rights here and we are going to ask that those be respected. And I still do think they want to extend them. I also think it was their goal to say, hey, as I wrote, if

he's coaching next year, he's our coach and we have the right to have him coach whether we exercise our option or we extend them. And I think that was the Canucks way of reminding everybody how this is going to work. Now somebody brought up to me, well, maybe Philly sends them like a third round pick. You can't do that anymore. Those, the compensation days are over. And I will tell you something else, Kyle. What another person said to me was, I don't understand why people enter into options.

And this was actually a manager who said this to me he said he's never understood options he doesn't believe in options and I mean look he said if they benefit me as a manager of course I'd look at it but I would never want another side to have an option on me if I was coaching or managing is there's nothing good that comes out of it for you if you're the one that doesn't have the option. And he actually wondered if this situation, depending on where it goes, doesn't eventually signify the end of these kinds of options because this one is obviously going to be

a thing here. Now, you know, Jim Rutherutherford he's no shrinking violet, Rick Tocket is definitely no shrinking violet and I think everybody's got their backs up a bit here. I still think this is solvable. To me this was just the Canucks putting a stake in the ground and reminding everybody, hey, we have some control here, and people are going to respect what the contractual rights are in our favor. So I still think it can be sorted out.

Like to me, this is a bigger thing. There's three conversations, I think, that are gonna be had here. Number one, the contractual conversation. You know, is Rick Tauke going to be offered a term that he's happy with by Vancouver? Is Rick Tauke going to be offered a number he's going to be happy with in Vancouver? If you take a look at all of Vancouver's coaches recently, if you go back to Travis Green, if you go to Tau it right now, I don't

remember where days are at Willie days, our names number was, but like at the highest, I think these guys were all around the high twos. That's where kind of Vancouver has established that their limit is in recent years with their recent hires, uh, in the mid to high twos and Rick talk it if you're gonna extend them here I think it's gonna be higher than that and I I just don't know that Vancouver's gonna be comfortable with that So that's number one number two is do they philosophically agree on where this team is and where this team is going I where this team is and where this team is going. I like their defense.

Where are they going in goal? Do they still believe in Demko? They just extended Lankanen. How does everybody feel about Demko? Now upfront, they want to deal with some stuff. They've talked about getting a center. Those are hard to find. But everything, like the overall vision of the team,

do they agree? And number three, and I forgot to mention this this week, it's an intense market, and this has been a hard year, like a really hard year. Someone said to me the other day, and I don't like hearing this, but I kind of understand it. Like he just said, like, you know, this guy said to me, you know, like, Elliot, you have

pounded Vancouver all year. He said when that story came out, he said, it's like the ninth time you've pounded the Canucks this year. And you know, I don't like that. It's not fun to hear, but it's just been that kind of year where every little while, every few days, something big has happened with the Canucks from the Miller-Peterson stuff on down. And it's a year that takes a lot out of you.

I think everybody listening to this who's a Canucks fan or has followed the Canucks all year, you understand that this year has taken a chunk out of everybody and sometimes I just wondered is does someone come to the end and say look it's you know, I've It's been too much. It's it's time to do something else So I think all of this is gonna be part of the conversation and I do think what happened this week is something that everybody can move past but you know, Rutherford doesn't back down. Taukeet doesn't back down. It's an intense time.

And, you know, I think, I think, I think Vancouver's just trying to remind everybody, Hey, like we have a big role in this too. And I think they were, you know, even though Taukett said all the right things about, hey, the season's not over and I'm not focusing on my contract, just the noise with the flyers, I think it just pissed them off a little bit. But to me, it's a speed bump. You can get past this. And to Taukett's defense, he didn't fuel any of the Philadelphia stuff as we talked about recently,

like it probably drove him nuts that that was even a narrative out there. So that stuff that neither side could control. But the more you say that too, is the idea of the option written in on a deal for a coach. Like it makes a ton of sense why you'd go, why would we have that? Because if you're in a tough situation as the coach, like it's almost like the lame duck target is right there at you. And beyond that, if

you're in a situation like this, it creates its own level of potential consternation as well. It's just, it's hard to see where the value is is having that in part of a contract. So it's interesting, at least in terms of a coach here. So it's interesting that you, someone mentioned that to you because it makes a lot of sense. The more that I kind of digest that whole thought. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to imagine this

from my own situation. Like if I was unhappy with my podcast co-host and he had an option on my services for next year, it would probably bother me a little bit. Yeah. I hold the cards. You're picking up my options next year, Kyle? I hold the cards. What's going on here? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Options are if you have control over the option, it's great. If you don't, it stinks. Okay. From Vancouver to Long Island and the Anthony Duclair Patrick Waugh situation, Elliot. So Tuesday night the Islanders are beaten by the

Lightning in the postgame. Waugh was very critical of Duclair to put it mildly. Thursday rolls around the team practices. Duclair is not out on the ice there. Waugh comes out afterwards to the local media and we learned that earlier in the day him and Duclair had a long conversation, a positive one. During that conversation Duclair tells him needs some time to be away to process things. Wa and the team grants that to him so Duclair is away from the Islanders for the time being. This is a player that's in the first year of a four-year deal. Elliott, fifth game of the year,

he suffers a groin injury, misses two months. You go back to January, he talked about how difficult it had been in trying to come back from an injury like that, though he wasn't using any of it as an excuse. Ultimately, this is a guy who has relied on his speed for a large portion of his career and what he does. So where do the player, the coach, and the organization go from here? Well, the first thing is you want to make sure DeClair's okay, because if this was as simple as an injury Kyle they would have just said look we're shutting him down because he's not healthy right they made it very clear this was a mental break and a reset and for that reason

it's a little bit different and you want Declare to be okay so when I saw this when I saw his quotes and I went through it the other day you know I started to look through some of DeClairs recent shifts and just because I wanted to see what was Waa looking at that had him so upset and it definitely looked like DeClairs had some weird stuff happen to him since he came back there was that shootout attempt where he completely lost the puck. He and like if you were looking at that game the other night, you could definitely see shifts where it just didn't look like he was interested in getting there. Like I, I understood why Waa from the bench for a couple of minutes was, was like, what

is this? But then someone said to me while I was looking at this, they said, have you looked at the data with du Claire and I said no, what are you talking about? He says look at the edge stuff from last year to this year so last year du Claire's in Tampa at the end of the year and You start to look at his his skating stuff, right? And you compared from last year this year and Kyle as you mentioned there was a significant injury Last year declared his top speed was 94th percentile a skater, okay?

This year's top speed he's 90th percentile Okay, no big difference there Now they go to burst and they divide their burst into three different speeds. 22 miles an hour plus 20 to 22 and 18 to 20. OK, so last year at the top end, 22 plus, Duclair was a 96th percentile skater this year 71

From 20 to 22 miles an hour last year. He was 86th percentile This year below 50 and the way the nhl does this is if you're a top 50 or better Percent they give you the number if you're below top 50 or better percent, they give you the number. If you're below 50, it just says below 50. They're not going to specifically embarrass you. So he's gone from 20 to 22 miles per hour from 86th percentile to below 50. Burst from 18 to 20 miles an hour. Last year he was 62nd percentile not spectacular but still above average this year below 50 so after looking at the numbers and look watching his shifts like part of me is just like he can't get there he cannot get there and you

know even though he's back from an injury, maybe he's healed per se, Kyle, but he's not the same skater. I don't know if it's like a long-term thing where it's whether it's a robdom of his speed or he's not confident or he's still feeling pain or whatever it is. All you have to do is look at the video and look at the numbers from last year to this year and say That's Anthony Duclair, but you know what Kyle? That's not Anthony Duclair. He can't get there. He cannot get there so when I hear them say He's taking a break. I wonder if this is much as

Duclair is saying I can't do what I normally do, and I'm really struggling with it. And you can see it, obviously. And we'll find out what the full story is. But at some point, all I can tell you right now is that whether you believe in the eye test or you believe in the data, that's not the guy you're used to seeing.

And I know in the past, Ducler at times has taken some heat. Remember John Tortorella a few years ago about the way he plays, but he's just not capable right now for whatever reason of doing what he can do when he's at his best And it's interesting you mentioned that because I was talking to a player this year Elliott that was coming back from not a groin injury but a leg injury that Cost him a considerable amount of time and the point that he made to me was as he's gotten on the ice and he's Ramping things up again. It's not necessarily a situation where you're still feeling pain from the injury, but more so as you're starting to move

again on the ice, that explosiveness, that pop of those first few strides that you've become so accustomed to having. I mean we see how big of legs that hockey players roll around with these days. They're used a lot of them to have in power and it just wasn't there because whether it's a strength thing, whether it's the continual healing process, it just hadn't got back to the level. Even if maybe you're not feeling pain, they're just weren't able to be in a situation where they were pushing off to the same level, those first few strides as before. So that completely ties

into the year over year edge data that you pointed out the bursts looking completely out of whack with Anthony Duclair, two different players. You know, the one thing that really stood out to me though about all this is that there's been a number of Islanders players this year who've been hurt or tried to play through injuries and you know, who are the two guys they've really gone after this year at various times? Engvall one and now Duclair and there's been a lot of other guys who've played Hurt and they haven't questioned those players.

Like to me it's just interesting that Wa talked about effort because it's like he hasn't criticized a bunch of guys this year who've played Hurt as long as they've played hard. And you know that to me with Duclerc is that wasn't was saying that he's hurt. That's was saying that whatever the injury is or was or how it's affected him, he's not competing hard enough. And that's where the one thing is really different.

Obviously I'm not yet privy to all the information here, but it just looks to me that he's just not the same guy and you know what that can make a guy who's trying not look like he's trying so look obviously declares in a really tough spot he's really hurting they gave him the break I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt here right now and say that he's struggling with not being able to do what he can do. And I just hope he gets healthy mentally and physically gets back to being that player that we've seen.

See this too, the Islanders, they have a lot of cap room. They have what 40 million in cap room this off season. Yeah, just about. They have a lot of cap room. They have what 40 million in cap room this offseason Yeah, I think we're all expecting Paul Mary to get signed here You know whether you know Lou Lamarello has that contract in his shoe or his desk or something like that Because everybody believes it's done But they're still gonna have a lot of cap room. You know, if they want to buy out Engvall, it's not prohibitive.

And I do think that as much as the Islanders have tried to stay afloat this year and try to make a late run at this, I also believe they've been trying to sell a plan for where they're going from here. And they have a lot of cap room this off season. Not a bad time to try to change the narrative of a team that constantly is just trying to get in and the final stretch of the year but can't score. So when the playoffs do roll around, it's a quick exit year after year because that's been the story on Long Island since you know there were back-to-back

runs in 20 in the bubble and then 21 bowing out to Tampa both years in the third round of the playoffs. Elliott, Wednesday night in Carolina we're going to talk about the whole Ovechkin storyline later on in the episode, but man there was a lot going on between the hurricanes and the capitals. Otherwise one of my favorite images of the night was seeing Logan Stankovic come out in street clothes for the third star at the end of the evening, but yeah things got ugly between those two Metro Division rivals, and one of the ugliest scenes

was the scrap between Jalen Chatfield and Connor McMichael and the takedown by Chatfield that could have been, could have been real trouble for McMichael. Thankfully, it looked like he was okay at the end of it. Are you surprised at all that there was nothing player safety wise weighing in in terms of the take down that Chatfield made on McMichael there? A little bit. You know the one thing I will concede here is that when it comes to fights in hockey George Paros

career fights approximately 200 Kyle Bacoskas and Elliott Friedman career NHL fights zero He knows more about fighting than we do so I will give him The benefit of the doubt on knowing what's acceptable and what isn't I didn't like that Because I just didn't like the possibility of injury. I had a couple people say to me, it looks worse in slow-mo, and when you watch it at real speed,

it's not like a judo takedown. It's like the two legs getting tied up and one guy goes down. I don't know, okay? I mean, the bottom line to me is, the two legs getting tied up and one guy goes down. I don't know, okay? I mean, the bottom line to me is I don't like to see heads hit the ice like that or come close to hitting the ice like that.

And we should be doing, like, ever since the Four Nations, we've all kind of had a re-energization of the love with fighting right and I don't mind it I like a fair hockey fight I don't have a problem with it but every once in a while you see something like this that kind of jolts you back to reality and you say boy we were lucky that didn't get worse. So what I'll say is this. The number one reason I wasn't surprised is that I looked for situations where NHL players have been suspended for something like that.

And I couldn't find anything. Kyle, you'll remember that earlier this season, George Perros got slightly overruled by the commissioner on a suspension. by the commissioner on a suspension. And for those of you who don't remember the situation, so earlier this year, Ryan Hartman was suspended 10 games for that roughing against Tim Stutzel of Ottawa and Gary Batman reduced it to eight. And you know, Paris has never said anything about it.

I've never asked him anything about it. But I know that there were people around the league who said, you know what, nobody would like know what nobody would like that nobody would like that if you look at situations recently where suspensions got reduced the one where everybody remembers and it's happened very rarely it was when Jason Spetsa's one got dropped because that was the first suspension of Spetsa's one got dropped. Because that was the first suspension of Spetsa's career. Hartman's got a history. And I remember when, when Betman did that,

again, there were people saying, that's a tough one for Peros. That's a really tough one. Because Hartman's a guy who's got a big history, and your own boss has just said, your suspension was too harsh. Now maybe Betman thought he was going to lose it, lose an arbitration. Whatever the case was, it's a rare rebuke for someone in that position.

And I remember saying to people who were telling me this, what do you think that's going to mean? And they said what it's going to mean is that Paris is going to become even more careful. There have been a lot more appeals of Paris's work in the last few years, and a lot of them have stood. But this one, for whatever reason, it wasn't the arbitrator who dropped it.

It was Betman. And when I looked and didn't find any examples of players getting suspended for anything like that, I thought about what these people were telling me after the Hartman one got reduced. And I said, he's not going to suspend them because there's no precedent for him to do this. Now what I think should happen is they should send out some notes and they should say, hey this happened, we don't want to see this happen again and they should make it as if we're not suspending Chatfield for this but we want to put everyone on notice that

we don't want to see more of these. I remember years ago, Kyle, there was a fight. I think it was Nashville-San Jose. And I think the national player was Brad Staubitz. And he got hit with some punches that the predators considered UFC style punches like they weren't fist. They were more forearms. And the predators complained they brought it up at a GM meeting and they showed the video like this should not be the way that guys are

punching each other. And nothing ever came of it. But. The managers were showed and a few of them agreed like those were really tough punches because they weren't punches they were forearms. We haven't seen much of that anymore since right? But I was reminded of that this week too. At the very least what you can do is you can say look we can't suspend for this there's no history of this but we're putting everybody on notice and we're saying we don't want to see this anymore. Like

someone said to me that last week after Merzlikin's tried to draw a penalty against I think it was Kiefer Sherwood, and late in that Vancouver Columbus game, apparently some Merzlikan's video went out to the officials and said, you have to watch for this guy. So you can always do that and say, okay, this wasn't on our radar before, it is now. And that's what I think the NHL should do here. Because you don't want to see that become a habit. You? Well and I agree with what you say and I'm not looking for an excuse on

Chatfield's part here by any stretch but I mean he does he has fought before I don't think you would consider him to be a fighter I just wonder like because you're at a certain point in survival mode right you're like you're you're in a fight and as you say watching it real speed versus slow down it's a bit of a different look I just wonder a split second as they get spinning around and you're trying to look for his upper hand somehow on your opponent next thing you know it's like here's you're trying to look for a separate hand somehow on your opponent. Next thing you know, it's like, here's an opportunity to just pull them to

the ground. And after the fact, you're like, holy smokes, I didn't even realize how close that could have been. That's got to factor into the 100% but a good reminder to put that out elsewhere to say, this cannot become a habit because you're asking for something far more severe than what we saw Wednesday. Okay that gets us to the final thought which is brought to you by GMC in the news North of the border this week that our employer Elliot Rogers has re-upped with the National Hockey League for a new 12-year national rights package for NHL Games beginning

in the 2026-27 season at the conclusion of the current 12-year deal. But the price tag for the newest one, over double what the current one is, $11 billion Canadian, $7 7.7 US is the price tag. What's interesting through this, Elliot, and I heard you, I think on SiriusXM, discussed this with Gord Stehlik earlier this week too, but the fact that this deal got done during the exclusive negotiating window that Rogers had with the NHL. I don't see that happen too often in history, certainly during the Gary Bettman era, so what does that kind of tell you? Big picture with regards to what the league's trying to get done here. So after the press conference on Wednesday morning I

asked Gary Bettman and Bill Daley if they'd ever done it so early before. So let's give everybody some context. The current 12-year deal was signed in November 2013. That was seven months before the end of that season. So seven months before the previous one expired. The current US deal NBC's last season was 2020 21 ESPN announced they signed in March of 2021 and TNT was April of 2021. So it was right towards the end of that NBC deal. This one was signed 14 months

before the end of the current contract because we have one more year. It goes through the end of next season, 2025, 26. I don't remember that ever happening before. And I asked Betman and Daley, do you guys ever remember getting it done that early? And Betman kind of looked at me and he goes, I know why you're asking this, but the reason it got done

was we were very comfortable with Rogers. And I mean, look, like, it's obvious here, if Rogers doesn't throw out a number that makes the NHL happy, this doesn't happen. So he's right about that. It comes down to this. But still, it never happens as far as I can remember. Betman and Daley, who've been there now 30 years, 30 plus years, they didn't remember it happening either. And so the reason I think it's fascinating is, and the reason, and where I think Betman was going with, I know why you're asking this, is because it comes during CBA negotiations. All of a sudden,

a major cornerstone of Betman's financial plan, the Canadian TV deal is done. It's done, we know expansion is lurking, probably two teams. We, you know, eventually he'll have to do a new US TV deal there in year four of seven. But that the cap is done for the next three years. It's just another thing that's lined up. We know that Betman wants to get he's said it twice now, that he would love to get the CBA done before game one of the Stanley Cup final when he meets with the media. I don't know that that's possible, Kyle, but it's another thing that he can bring to the table and say, look guys, we've got the cap done the next three years. You know we're gonna expand at some point here, there's gonna be more jobs available for you. I expect the players to try to ask for some of that money. I expect the answer to be no,

but they'll say look, that's 46 more jobs at least for you. And now he can say look, we've got the Canadian TV deal done. You know it's funny, I had a coach ask me a couple weeks ago if I thought the deal would get done during this negotiating window and I laughed. I said that never happens. These always go to market. And not only that, and what we didn't know, Kyle, like how did we even know they were negotiating?

Rodgers didn't tell us. Betman said it. He came right out and said, we're going to open negotiations with them soon. Like the one thing someone said to me is, someone said to me, how come you don't break the story of Rodgers getting the deal? How come this came out in Sportico? And I said, you guys don't understand, people who think that you and I or anyone else at Rogers,

especially not David Amber, there's no way they'd let David Amber walk upstairs. Security would tackle him before he got one floor up the stairwell. There's a big separation of church and state here. They do not, I've said this before, when I got hired, Scott Moore said, Elliot, there's going to be things I'm never going to tell you. And I won't even let

you ask me because the NHL has got to know we have conversations, and they're not going to end up on our network. Right. And so Rogers is very good at that they separate those conversations. So we didn't even know that the window had been extended until they said it at the press conference. Like I turned to Amber and I said, did you know that? And we said to Ron, who was hosting it after, did you know that?

And we're like, no, like nobody knew. Right? that and we're like, no, no, like nobody knew. Right. So like this was a big surprise to I think a lot of us at Rogers too. And, but to me it's all about the CBA. It's all about getting this labor piece done as quickly as possible. And what is going on here is Betman is lining up everything to present to the players and say, we have this all lined up. What problem could there possibly be?

And there's going to be some things they battle with each other for, try to bring up with each other for. And but all the big stuff, Kyle, like one of the things that kind of makes me laugh a bit is Betman says, well these are the real negotiations starting now. Well, they've been negotiating for a while because like that salary cap thing, that's a negotiation. They negotiated to get that done. Yeah, right. It didn't just fall out of the sky. It's the whole idea that negotiations are just beginning now.

That's crazy town. Now, do I have some theories here on that? Yes, I do. Number one, all of the players are still playing. I'm curious to see if once half of these teams are out, some of the players involved in those teams start getting involved in CBA negotiations. So that's why I kind of think, like, Betman also too, he has a CBA negotiating committee.

I'm not sure how involved it is, but he's got one. And like, it's, it's bad. It's sort of like, earlier this year, when we reported that the NHL was going to have this big cap jump, and they were going to work it out. Betman said, it's that report is crazy. And it turned out to be perfectly true. But I understand what he's doing. It's like both him and the players association, they want to announce things on their schedule. Betman didn't like that report about the cap because it was too early. He hadn't presented it to the owners yet. And so when these guys are saying

we haven't done a lot of negotiations yet, it's not because they haven't done a lot of negotiations, it's because they're not ready to present. Right? A lot of the players are still playing. Betman's not ready to present yet. So number one, I think this is further ahead than anyone is admitting. And number two, Betman continues to knock off things that should incentivize everybody to get a deal done. And I think that's a huge factor in this. Yes, Roger stepped up and wrote a big check, but number two, I don't think Batman was too eager to have this delayed. Once Roger stepped up, he was like, it's a good number, I don't need to take it public, and it keeps me on my schedule of what I want to get done here. So I just look at all of that together. Does that make sense to you?

Yes, and I wonder if As we move forward here and they figure out what the new CBA will look like I don't know how many things from the player side They're gonna be really banging the table on I mean you mentioned, you know the idea I'm sure they would love to get their hands on some of the expansion fee money. But if there was ever a time that the players would have some wind at their backs and a little bit higher ground to stand on if they were to ask for something, it's right now coming off the heels of that Four Nations event and what they hope to do with the International calendar going forward and how much of a success that was because of the players buying into that and making it what it was.

That's my thought. It makes a lot of sense to me. That's a first. Sure is. Yeah. Sure is. Yeah. All right. Well, with that, Elliot, the final thought brought to you by GMC. Why don't we take our first break and come back with the thought line as 32 Thoughts,

the podcast rolls on after this. All right, welcome back. Time once again for the Thoughtline. One eight three three three one one thirty two thirty two or thirty two thoughts at Sportsnet.ca is how you submit a question, an idea, a complaint, anything to us here at the Thoughtline. Elliot, anything we need to do to clear the decks before today's submissions? Yes, there was one thing we were talking about. We were talking about most minutes played in a game, and we talked about Cam Fowler for the regular season and Seth Jones for

the playoffs, which is the record in that massive game between Columbus and Tampa Bay in the bubble. And someone reached out anonymously on behalf of the late Brad the Beast McCrimmon. And there is, I don't know that it's actually written, but it's common knowledge. Merrick used to talk about it all the time but Brad McCrimmon when he played a junior hockey there was a game in the Memorial Cup where it's believed he played basically the entire game and as a matter of fact one of the reasons he didn't play the whole game was because he took a penalty in it and it is believed to have happened in the 1979 Memorial Cup he was representing the Brandon Wheat Kings at the time and

They they didn't win the Memorial Cup that year. They lost the final to Peterborough 2 to 1 in overtime. But there was a game there where McCrimmon basically played all of it. And someone reached out and said that should be recognized. And I completely agree. So we're going to do so right here. Thank you anonymous for submitting that. We would be remiss if we left that out. That's incredible. Yeah. Merrick used to reference it from time to time. So I do remember him talking about it. I just

completely forgot about it in the moment. Alright, we begin today with Phil from Glasgow. Wow. Dear Kyle, Dom and the guy who buys those suits. Kind of new fan to the NHL, only been following for three seasons now but learning fast and love the pod. I'm reading all this chat about players from the NCAA being signed by teams and coming right into the lineups and they start playing immediately and of course there is the draft of all the new young players coming in a couple of months. Could you help a newbie understand all of this by doing a 60 second idiot's guide to

drafts and new players? I would really appreciate understanding how this whole thing works. And what about if they're coming from Europe? Go Leafs Go. This is an excellent question and I will try to do it in 60 minutes. Basically the way it works is if you are between the ages of 18 and 20 you cannot enter the NHL without going through the draft. First of all if you you're below 18, you're too young. If you're older than 20, you can become a free agent. Between the ages of 18 and 20, you have to enter the NHL through the draft. And how long each team holds your rights, as it stands right now, it may change, but

as it stands right now, it may change, but as it stands right now, depends on where you are drafted from. If you are drafted from Europe, the team that drafts you holds your rights for four years. If you are drafted out of the NCAA or you are drafted out of the United States Hockey League or like the North American Hockey League or American High School or anything like that, an NHL team holds your rights for four years. If you are drafted out of the Canadian Hockey League, that is the WHL, the Quebec Major Junior League or the Ontario Hockey League, they hold your rights for two years. Now some of those players in the Canadian Hockey League who get drafted if they aren't signed in two years and they're still

not quite 20 then you get to go back in the draft again and you could be selected again but if you age out you're 20, you become an unrestricted free agent. So any player who's older than 20, who either hasn't been drafted or the team has run out of time to sign them and either the player decides not to sign or the team says, sorry, it didn't work out for us. I don't like this player as much. We're not signing them. They become a free agent.

So a lot of these NCAA players that you're seeing signing now, most of them are late bloomers. They weren't seen as good then as they are now, and now teams are trying to see, okay, this player, we like the way they've aged, we like the way they've come on, we're going to take a shot. Generally, they tend to be a little bit older and some teams say, hey, the chances aren't that great. They don't really believe in them as much, but a lot of teams will look at it like, hey, it's a lottery ticket or we really like this player, we're going to take our chance. So that's the way it works. That's the that is the the basic, easy,

simple explainer. And I should also mention that the length of your entry level contract, one, two or three years, depends on how old you are. There's something in the CBA that says players this age, three years, player this age, two years, player this age or older, one year. And that's the way it goes. That's pretty good. More than 60 seconds, but I think that should make sense. But the best part is, I know you just did this by accident, but you initially said hopefully to do this in under 60 minutes. And I thought that was...

Is that what I said? I thought that was the worst thing you could say to me in a radio interview is Elliot we're running out of time because no matter what happens I can't hit the time. Kiss of death. That was very good. Very good. Good question Phil. So hopefully that explains it. Welcome to hockey Phil. We're glad that you enjoy it. You're always welcome. Beautiful. Our voicemail up next, Scott and his dad. Hey, Kyle, Elliot, Dom.

Riding along with my son Scott in the car, and he commented about Kyle's voice being so much better, and I assured him it's just because Elliot's in the Winnipeg airport, and he has a much better voice. But that got us thinking about the sounds of the game and we were listening and watching the Oilers vs Flames on Hockey Night in Canada and we got to hear a little bit of nurse going to cadre through Louis' mic we also got to hear a great overtime goal off the

post our question is what are the sounds of the game prep? And where do they put mics? What gets amplified and what doesn't? And do you have any stories about things that have been caught on mics that you've been able to hear that have been edited out of general populations ears? So thanks so much. We love hearing from you. Scott, what do you got? Nothing. That's pretty funny. Scott's dad, way to take it for the team. I like that. See, that's what fatherhood is all about. Your son's a bit shy, you carry the mail.

Nice, that's a good dad. Now, did you speak to any of our highly qualified audio crew about this? I did, because we're recording this out of the middle. I knew you would. I knew you would. About the work you do in the Canadians Bruins game, so. Kyle, I have lots of questions about your ability,

but not this. I knew you would go and sort this out. You gotta get to the bottom of these things, because I don't know otherwise. So when it comes to a hockey broadcast, there are typically... By the way, do you want to mention who you spoke to? Give them credit. Idea, yeah. So Michael Hayes, who does a great job working on the audio world.

Good guy. Good guy. He worked in what's known as the A2 position for a number of years. That's when him and I first got to know each other. And now he's at least and Thursday night and a lot more often. He's the head guy a one in the truck. So typically, there are 10 mics set up around the arena and these are placed along the glass. So mics behind placed along the glass. So mics behind either net in all four corners and at the four blues, give or take. All right. And throughout the game as play goes back and forth, it's up

to the lead audio engineer to kind of ride those mics as the play comes through there to catch the action and the sounds over the course of the game. And then on top of that, depending on the audio engineer's preference or maybe the broadcasters preference, there's also mics set up in the crowd too at certain sections between four to six, or I suppose that could vary as well to capture arena ambience, crowd noise, that sort of thing beyond the actual gameplay itself. And then all night you're balancing which mics to have up, which ones to not. And through all of that, every now and then there is the occasional hot mic incident. Challenges though, like it's live television, so it can be real difficult to catch.

Certainly there are nights, you know, more and more now and we'll see this a lot in the playoffs where players, some players will have a mic on during games. And it's actually it'll be written up in the opposing team's dressing room. They'll say like, just so you know, this guy on the other team is wearing a mic tonight. So everybody's aware. And so sometimes you'll see whether it's in the playoffs or even during the regular season from time to time you know they'll come out of commercial break

and they'll have what's called a mic'd up pack a video package of that player throughout the game and just some little snippets of things that you hear them say but that sort of stuff has to be cleared through the league like there's someone from the NHL in the production truck going, okay, yes, we're okay with that going to air or no, we can't have that go out, whatever it said or not said, onto the broadcast for the public. So there is some hoops to jump through in those situations. So you don't have something you don't want out there on the air and for public consumption. That's really good. Now, first of all, I just want to say to Michael Hayes, out there on On the air and for public consumption That's really good. Now. First of all, I just want to say to Michael Hayes Just notice who got your name mentioned and who wasn't gonna mention it Michael. Just just remember that okay? No, no, no, no, no, no, you were you were gonna hog all this yourself. You were keeping the glory

The other thing too is with Louie's position like there are some games where there are broadcasters in between the benches, you know, Ray Ferraro, our teammate is there a lot. And there are other games where there aren't broadcasters between the benches. So like that night with the battle of Alberta, Louie was between the benches. So you probably heard a lot more than you normally would. It's interesting. I think a lot of the people who work in between their, um, they have different opinions, I think on when they should keep the mic open and when they should have the mute button on. That's always a thing. You know I will say this one referee was telling me recently that he has noticed a real change in a lot of the players and how they talk on the ice. Like ago, 30, 40, 50, even 20 years ago, there are things that

would have been sitting on the ice that nobody says now. They recognize that the punishments are greater. And look, nobody should say anything offensive. I think we all agree with that. But they walk the line much better than they used to. It's just people understand there are real consequences for going too far. And he told me in particular, there was one player who is very, very verbal,

who used to say just about anything, who now is, he's still vocal, he's still all over people, but he knows exactly where the line is and he doesn't go over it. And he says, this is a player who snaps. but he knows exactly where the line is and he doesn't go over it. He says this is a player who snaps but even when he snapped he is much much different about what he says. It's now more about dismembering you as opposed to just like saying anything that you shouldn't say about the person or their relatives.

So like it's everybody says we realize now that the things we used to be able to say, nope, and they're a lot more careful and they know what's acceptable, what isn't and what the consequences are. Right. So I guess it forces people to get more creative too when they're going to rip somebody. There's still, I have no doubt there still are some good ones out there. Absolutely. Okay, Jeremy from Kelowna.

Hey guys, I'm sure you've had a ton of inquiries regarding this and I know Elliot has explained it in the past, but can you elaborate a bit more on blackouts, specifically regional and what the theory is? I'm a Calgarian born and raised, loyal flames fan. I did not cheer for Edmonton in the finals last year. Oh Wow, I Maintain season tickets corporately shared as I am now living in Colona. So Geographically in Canucks territory so I get the frequent flames blackouts

What I don't understand is on scenarios like earlier this week when the Flames are in a playoff race, Vancouver's not playing, why the Flames vs Seattle game is blacked out and the Edmonton vs Las Vegas game is not. How is this determined? I get maybe more people want to see Edmonton, but why couldn't each of the games be on? So some further explanation on how the blackouts are selected and why would be great. Who'd you ask? We went to right to the source.

Who's the source? The same one that explained to you start times. That didn't go very well last time. Did he claim he was just waking up from a nap again this time? Yeah, no, this was not the case. Clear mind. Okay, good. Yeah, he was in much better shape. Okay, good. All right, so before I confuse the situation, why don't you go ahead? So here's the thing with, because you're right, that Edmonton game, there are cases throughout

the year and it's called regional to national, where it would be otherwise considered a regional game, but it has moved into a situation that it can be viewed across the country. And I understand Jeremy's point here, but the issue is the majority of these decisions when the programmers are mapping out which games are we moving, and there's certain allotments you have per season of taking a Flames Regional and putting it on a national stage or Edmonton or Vancouver etc. There's a certain number you can do per year. It costs you a bit more money. And those decisions are made in September typically so you're trying to map out and best guess which ones would

be the most attractive to be seen nationally over the course of a season because there is sponsorship and advertisement ramifications to those decisions. And there's just a ripple effect also. There are situations as the season plays out where maybe you want to change one, but it's not so simple as going, well, this was previously a regional game. We can only be seen in the Calgary area and now we're moving it to national because suddenly it's a very important game there are ripple effects to that again a lot of it tied to sponsorship and those sorts of things so it's not as simple of that decision and so that's why you know you see

scenarios where sure on paper you understand especially as a flames fan you're going They're in a playoff race. This is a huge game against Utah Why wouldn't this one be put up on a national audience? Meanwhile, you see an oiler game like that Edmonton versus Vegas an attractive matchup for sure But maybe not quite the same level of ramification or intrigue with regards to the playoff race as the Flames game would be. Often it is because those decisions are made right at the beginning of the year and it's not so simple when it comes to changing those decisions. Right and especially when it comes to teams that

we don't own the full regional rights of. For example, we can't do that with Winnipeg or Ottawa or Montreal. They are owned by the evil telecom and half the Toronto games, which we share with TSN. So we can't take those games regional to national. Now, if you were paying attention at all to the announcement the other day, where we extended the rights, you heard a lot of talk about blackouts. I do just believe as a viewer, not a Rogers person, but someone who is obviously interested in television, there is more and more noise as we move into the 21st century that blackouts will eventually be a thing of the past.

They will be over. And thank God can't happen soon enough. If you heard our press conference on Wednesday, we are trying to make that a reality. Now I think at this point in time, our guys want to be very careful about making promises they can't keep. But it's very clear that if you listen to Collette Watson from Rogers the other day that there are mechanisms in there that they are going to try to use to get more and more of these games available and they will announce them every year at the beginning of the season but it's

very clear to me that our goal whether we do it or not because again there's always external factors our goal is eventually get to a place where there just aren't blackouts and I do think across North American viewing in all sports not just hockey we are headed in that direction I've seen TV executives quoted about it I've seen streaming executives quoted about it. I've seen streaming executives quoted about it and they just think in this world It's gonna happen. It's just that you have to jump through hoops to get there I thought one of the more interesting things was I think Ottawa and Winnipeg have one more year in their current regional deals But if you heard we picked up 10 more games a year in two years where we can take the Jets

and the Sanders national. So it makes me just wonder as a person, where are things going with the Jets and the Sanders over the next couple of years? Very interesting point. Okay, Elden from London, Ontario. All right, Elden. Hi, Kyle. Purple and proud. Purple and proud, Elden. After hearing Elliot say that Kyle looked like Kale McCarr, it immediately prompted this email because my wife and I have long thought that Kyle had an NHL player doppelganger that isn't McCarr. Oh. She would see Kyle on TV and couldn't come up with his last name, she would say, hey, it's Curtis Lazar on TV. It's been going on for years,

and we still call you Curtis Lazar when we see you on the screen. So I included this only because that used to be a real thing for a while, Elliot. Let me tell you. I can see it. You know what? I absolutely can see it. Now that you, I haven't even looked at this picture yet, but now just imagine Lazar's face in my mind. I absolutely, a hundred percent can

see it. Very similar facial structure. Ottawa connection. Lazar drafted by Ottawa, played in Ottawa, you live in Ottawa and also you guys both strike me as people that would eat a hamburger off the ground. Yes critically a couple of BC guys no here's the thing that's right BC too that's right his rookie year in Ottawa was my first year living in Ottawa covering the team no way certainly like those early years the resemblance was a lot closer when we were fresh-faced. I mean he wasn't even 20 yet I was early 20s and then that season he goes to the World Juniors and

Captains Team Canada and I covered the part of the tournament that was in Montreal and we were out one night after a game and there was a guy in the bar that was convinced I was Curtis Lazar and I did not have the heart to tell him he was mistaken. So that was a thing like do you pay for your bill? No no no guys. Oh what's the point of that? JG Pajo back then like they always got a kick out of the similarities. The best story was later on that year when Dallas came through town Vern Fiddler was playing for the Stars at the time and it was that his first game back in Ottawa since being traded there

so we're in the room in the morning skate and we're waiting for Spetsa to come off the ice and Ian Mendez tells me the story because he was And Ian Mendez tells me the story because he was a reporter back then that Vern Fiddler quietly walks up to him and gets his attention and he goes, what the hell is Curtis Lazar doing in our dressing room? And he's like pointing at me. So he saw it too, mistakenly. He actually thought I was a player for the Ottawa Senators lurking in their dressing room. So it's- That is so funny. That's fantastic. thing for a while. That's fantastic. You know what? I was wondering as you were telling that story what the players thought.

Like were you, did they ever get confused with you and Lazar? So it's awesome to know that the answer is yes. Yes. Yeah. So it's, I mean, yeah, Zar, he gone to different stops in in his career and time has gone on I don't hear it as much but when I saw that submitted I thought I better throw this in there because there is some context to the starts of both of our Pro careers around the NHL where it was a lot more prevalent

That is fantastic. That is a great story. And I thank Elden for submitting it because that is one of the best stories that Kyle has ever told. As a matter of fact, you should retire. What are you trying to say here, buddy? You can't tell another story as good as that one

Great great. It's good to know I peaked Going out on top Okay, so I've got one more here Elliot. Okay, that was slid to me Quietly Uh-oh get on here. All right, okay Hi, Elliot Kyle and Dom. First love the pod. You guys and Donnie and Dolly out of the Vancouver Victoria are must listen podcasts for me.

Wait a sec, we just got compared to Donnie and Dolly. This is an insult of the highest order. You don't like where this is headed, eh? Just stay with me, stay with me. I have been waiting for an opportunity to weigh in on your producer, Dom Schramatti. Oh, here we go. Yes. Excellent. And your Friday morning podcast last week proved it. While Dom may be shy in a reporter's scrum, there was a time when he was not shy while holding a mic. I had the pleasure of being one of Dom's high school teachers. Oh my goodness. And I called a young brash Dom

Schramatti sitting beside me at the scores bench of a BC Catholic high school basketball championship final. I provided color commentary while Dom, who was just cutting his teeth in the communications and broadcasting program at university, graced us with his silky, baritone voice and his unmistakable passion for sports, doing the play-by-play. And I must say, he was excellent. Nice. He may have plagiarized the odd phrase from well-known play-by-play artisans but he was smooth and creative and never got flustered there was no shyness with the mic on that night on a personal note Dom was a great kid the kind of kid you would want your own son to be oh there's no way that's true. No way

Wow Dom, that's awesome I'm I am I'm humbled here. I am very wow Do is there is there a name with this do we know who this teacher is or do you know who this teacher is? Don that you called basketball with that is mr. Batante. I've actually sent you a picture of Mr. Batante and I doing this call that he's referencing. Oh my gosh. Thank you, Mr. Batante. That's very kind of you to reach out.

That's very nice. This is the greatest thought line ever, I think. Is that a faux hawk, Dom? Yeah. Yeah, well done. Well done. Yeah, it looks good. I like the full Hawk. It looks good on you. Thanks guys. Wow, I'm so touched. That is great. Thank you. So tell us about your basketball play-by-play. What team are you calling here? What is this?

So Holy Cross Regional High School in Vancouver in Surrey, every year they host a BC Catholic Provincial Basketball Tournament where they invite every Catholic school in the province to come compete, ladies and men. And they needed play-by-play people for their online stream and being a young aspiring broadcaster, I put my name out and they let me volunteer and do some work. So it was a good opportunity. It was good. Do you have any audio of this? Oh no, no, I didn't say. Oh, it's too bad. I dropped some of it in. Like it would be awesome. I missed opportunity. Well, hey, that's an awesome letter. I can assure you of this, Dom, that no high school teachers of mine are writing anything

nice about me like that. So that's awesome. Congratulations. Now, did you work the, on Wednesday night, did you work Seattle, Vancouver in Vancouver? Oh, here we go. Yes, I did. Did you hold the microphone at the end of the game? You know it.

Did you ask any questions? I did not dare ask Quinn Hughes or Marcus Pedersen, who were quite upset at losing that game, a question. Yeah, that was a tough environment to break the streak there. We'll give you that. I actually, I have a story about this. So I, I totally forgot this. Bo Horvats first returned to Vancouver. I was tasked with going into the Islanders room to collect sound. And for whatever reason, there were no other visiting media that day. Oh yeah. So me and, and Michael Bradley, the cameraman, we go into the islands. Great guy. And he goes, I guess you're asking questions. So it was essentially a one on one between Bo Horvat and myself following his first game

back as an islander to the Vancouver Canucks. That was the one and only time I've asked questions. How'd it go? It was good. It was great. Bo was kind. He had good answers. He was good. Good man.

Nice. Something to build on Dom. Way to go. Thank you Mr. Batonte for submitting that to Kyle. Kyle was that a DM or something? No, it came through the thought line, but Griffin Porter who curates these usually sends the batch to Dom and myself. He sent that one give him credit just on the side. So it was nice to nice job Griffin wrap up today's edition of the thought line. Perfect way to finish. We'll take one final break and conclude the pod after this 32 thoughts. The podcast continues. All right, Elliot, at the start of this week, Alex Ovechkin was five goals away from breaking

Wayne Gretzky's record on Monday's pod. You suggested it cou Carolina. He is three awa 8 94 record. The capitals Chicago Blackhawks friday in Canada. It will be ava seven Eastern. You can. How many minutes does Alex Ovechkin, how much ice time does he see Friday night with an opportunity to break the record with a hat trick at home?

Why do I have a feeling Alexander Ovechkin, remember last week we talked about most minutes played and we talked about Brad McCrimmon earlier on this podcast in the game. Why do I have a feeling Ovechkin is going to play 45 minutes tonight? Yeah, yeah. I think because it might happen. That's probably why. Look the Capitals can't, you can't fix it so he does it at home, but you know they want it to happen at home.

I would even bet deep down, Ovechkin would like for it to happen at home. Maybe even not so deep down. Ovechkin would want it to happen at home. You know, the Capitals fans are his biggest supporters. You know that they're going to be mauling each other for tickets to get into this game. They want to see it tonight. Chicago played really hard the other night in that game against Colorado, deserved a better fate,

blew the lead in the last 15 seconds, and lost the game in a shootout. But they're young. There's a lot of guys getting their first taste of the NHL, particularly on defense. There's a lot of guys who really haven't played with each other. Uh, this team is ripe for Ovechkin to go off on them and he's just hot. Uh, you're right. I felt it this week.

It would not surprise me at all if it happens tonight, if he gets all three of them. Tonight, we're expecting Gretzky to be there. You know, the Batman went right from our media conference on Wednesday down to Carolina for that game. He was there. It would not surprise me in the least bit if Ovechkin pops off and does the hat trick and sets it on Friday night. It's just, it's set up for it. I could be totally wrong but if I'm right I'm gonna brag about it for decades. Oh man. That's the only downfall to seeing it happen tonight. The only downfall to seeing it happen. The padding on the back. That building will be berserk. You know Kyle, you

know I mean you and I know you sometimes you walk into a building you know, Kyle, you know, I mean, you and I know, you sometimes you walk into a building, you know, it's a big game and you can feel the electricity even hours before anyone's there. That's what that building is going to be like on on Friday. We think about when Gretzky did 50 and 39, right? He scored like a couple early and it was like, oh boy, here we go, like it gets five goal game. And if Ovi gets one early, then you just can only imagine the buzz and anticipation will continue to grow on top of

what already will be there leading up to puck drop here tonight. Fascinating, fascinating stuff. Do you think Sean Reynolds, who's traveling for us right now as part of the Ovechkin story, do you think his family wants him to stay on the road or come back? I think it's 75-25 they want him to stay on the road. That's strange. Honey, he broke the record? I'm coming home. Great.

We're so looking forward to seeing you. Yes. Who's yeah, who would be most looking forward to seeing him his family or can we it would be a toss up. I think too, you know, you're imagine you're a fan buying a ticket to this game. You are wishing it to happen. You don't want it to happen.

If you're a Capitals fan, you don't want it to happen on Sunday on Long Island. How many people are going to have tickets to both this home game and their next one next week? That building is going to be with him on every shift. And the other thing too, I wonder, do the Capitals then start to rest him a bit before the playoffs? Or is he just going so well you just leave him out there? I think it comes to a time like this is such a big thing and it's so massive that you almost want it over quickly so

you can celebrate it and then focus on the postseason. I think if you're the Capitals and probably him you want this done as soon as possible. So Avetskin in the Caps, the biggest story of Friday night, Saturday a lot of hockey to keep track of as well. In the afternoon Edmonton is in Los Angeles talk about another big game that can be seen nationally outside of the Pacific Vancouver region because they play at the same time for Eastern one Pacific does Vancouver and Anaheim in the Canucks region but nationally in the rest of the country the the Oilers and Kings, four Eastern, two o'clock Mountain. And then Hockey Central Saturday gets us going.

6.30 Eastern with Ron McClain and company. Elliot, you will be there, of course. Three early games, Columbus and Toronto. The Flyers are in Montreal and Winnipeg is in Utah. The lone late game on Saturday, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Calgary Flames at 10 Eastern, seven Pacific. is in Utah, the lone late the Vegas Golden Knights a at 10 Eastern, seven pacif keep ourselves going as w

beginning of the Stanley Enjoy friday night watchi down the record and the w Music