32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Thumbs Up For Kadri

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

A wild finish in Tampa! Jeff and Elliotte recap an exciting game 4 in Tampa (00:10), wonder how the Lightning will rebound from the loss and discuss the OT goal by Nazem Kadri (11:00).They then talk about Paul Maurice and why Florida hired him as their new head coach (15:30), Pierre-Luc Dubois and Blake Wheeler potentially looking to move out of Winnipeg (20:40), and the guys break down their awards ballot (27:00).Check out the limited edition 32 Thoughts merchandise line HEREMusic Outro: Shred Kelly - Roman Candle EyesListen to our 32 Tracks playlist on Amazon Music. All the tracks you hear on this podcast during the playoffs are featured there.This podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Production support by Mike Rogerson.Audio Credits: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM and Sportsnet.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.

Oh, no. Sorry, Darren. I'm just doing the podcast. Are you with Merrick? Yeah. Just say Merrick stinks. Merrick stinks. Yeah. Okay. I know you guys very well. So 15 years to the day that Patrick Kane was drafted first overall by the Chicago Blackhawks,

Nazem Qadri scores a goal that reminded us of the Stanley Cup winner scored by Patrick Kane Elliott in 2010 welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast America alongside Elliott Friedman and Amal Della she has 15 years to the day that Patrick Kane was drafted great pull Nazem Kadri scores that goal Elliott Kadri inside the circle Kadri where's the puck how did that not go in Goal, Elliott. Overtime winner! And you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here because this party is over! Let's start at the end and work our way back. First of all, Colorado, just an assault on the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime. It seemed like Valerie Nachushkin was out there

for the entire OT. Your thoughts on what we saw, the Cadre goal, the full overtime, the performance by the Avalanche. First of all, hat tip to you, real credit. That's a great pull on Patrick Kane. I also thought about Marie-Philippe Poulin's goal at one of the world championships during

COVID, the one that won the gold medal. Yeah, last summer. I couldn't even remember what it was. It's like Nathan McKean's post-game interview. I don't even know what day it is anymore, never mind what year. And it just reminded me that goal scorer's goal you know very few people know what's in just like he knew it was in marie philly pulan knew it was in this time no i don't think cadry knew it was in no but if you watch the replay jeff there's two avalanche fans in the corner. The only two people in the screen who know that the puck's in. So I saw it on one of the replays

and they jumped up because they knew it was in. Just a beautiful goal. And you know what I thought tonight, Jeff? What's that? Tampa got Tampa. This was the kind of game that Tampa always won.

Came back twice from one goal deficits, found a way to win it. But tonight it was Colorado. You know, I never count the lightning. Everybody who listens to this podcast knows how I feel about them. But was Chernak getting hurt and leaving the game? And Sorelli, you know, that shot of Maroon helping him put on his jersey because he couldn't even do it himself.

You know, I thought Hagel got hurt in overtime too. They were on fumes. They were out of gas and Vasilevsky almost single-handedly did it for them. I couldn't tell whether it was Tampa was out of gas, specifically in that overtime and down the stretch in the third period, or just Colorado found another gear. Let's go back to the beginning and walk through this thing. So no Burakovsky.

He was out. Kucherov in. Nick Paul in. Braden Point out. Kucherov in. Nick Paul in. Braden Point out. Darcy Kemper gets a start for Colorado. Nazem Khadri in and was a huge factor at the end in this one. Sorelli scores. McKinnon ties it up.

Hedman with a backhand shot. Makes it 2-1 Tampa. We thought it was Nico Sturm. It goes off Cogliano. That makes it 2-2. And that takes us to overtime and the heroics there. You know what this was, getting there, Elliot? This was a celebration of what

I like to refer to as beautiful ugly goals and blocked shots. That was the story of this game for me. Beautiful ugly goals and blocked shots. What did you think? I thought it was going to be your night because only greasy goals beat Vasilevsky. Like this had Merrick written all over it.

But the thing about a night like tonight is if you're a writer or you've got to talk about this game afterwards, you don't even have to do anything. You really don't even deserve a paycheck because the story is written for you.'s cadre coming back from injury in his first stanley cup game you know if you watched him or you watch the video of him at practice on the day off tuesday or on the morning screen on wednesday he was like flicking the puck and part

of me was wondering if he's just saying you know what why bother doing this hard now yeah when i might need to save it during the game yeah and when he had this opportunity he put it into that if you're reporting on this game yeah you don't even deserve a paycheck because the story is written for you not that any of us are giving it back yeah at this point you're stealing money now of course you noticed where cadre shot right yeah high block i know this narrative is out there and it's obvious but i'm not hearing any vasilevsky slander tonight not at all vasilevsky saved this team early in ot on that logan o'connor breakaway yes he did that one had wow who picked logan o'Connor? Who had Logan O'Connor in the pool?

And he completely stoned him. Now, you and I talked about Gabriel Landeskog on radio. I was talking to someone earlier on today who brought up a really interesting point. And we saw it played out today in this game. Nazem Khadri, of course, with the bad thumb. We know that he's going to be taking a regular shift. We know that he's going to be playing. But we don't think that he's going to take face-offs.

Enter Gabriel Landeskog. And as one person mentioned to me today, the beginning of this game said, have you ever noticed how Gabriel Landeskog always ends up on the line that needs help? Or Gabriel Landeskog always ends up on the line that's in trouble he's the ultimate fixer on this avalanche team I know you've heard me gush too much about Gabriel Landeskog you know I've said it before he's probably my favorite player in the league but here's a guy

again okay Kadri's in who's the player you put with him to make sure you can maximize what you have in Nazem Kadri and do all the things that will allow Nazem Qadri to be Nazem Qadri, much like all the things that he does allows Nathan McKinnon, when he's on that line, to be Nathan McKinnon. Again, Frege, it's Gabriel Landeskog. He's absolutely a great player, and that's one of the reasons he's the captain of the team. I like that nickname, the fixer.

It's a good nickname. Now that I think about it, every time there's a problem, oh, just put Landis Gog on the line. What a luxury for Jared Bednar. Just put Landis Gog over there. It'd be fine. And this reminds me of some of my favorite movies and books are about fixers. For example, the book, The Fixer by Bernard Malamud is a great book. And George Clooney's movie, by Bernard Malamud is a great book. And George Clooney's movie, Michael Clayton, about a legal firm fixer is a great movie.

So anybody who's nicknamed the fixer has to be great. And Landis Gog is. Hang on. You're missing one of the big ones too. What's that? Harvey Keitel, the wolf from Pulp Fiction. Oh, of course. Right.

Well, I have to leave something for you. Or there you say, I'm not a fixer. Okay. You left me a crumb there. Thank you. Hansel and Gretel style. You you're leaving the little little crumbs for me along the way so i i have to tell you another guy i have to shout out is anton stewart yep so stewie whenever we work together whenever there's a scramble around the net he'll always yell out it's in the net and it never fails to make me laugh it always makes me. And he told me that he used to do that as a player too. And then one day the officials came up to him and they said,

you have to stop doing that. It's preventing us from doing our jobs properly. You can't yell it's in the net in the middle of a scrum in front, but he always still does it. And right after we realized the Cadry's puck was in, I got a text from Stewie. It's in the net. Oh, that's awesome.

That's like the person that always has the same answer for every Jeopardy question. Like whatever it is, it just keeps repeating the same thing because eventually it's going to be right. Full marks to the Avalanche. They earned this one tonight. They did. They got stronger.

Now, I'm not going to say who it was. I don't want to embarrass them, but as I was walking out of the building, I was hearing some people predict that it's going to be like 5 or 6 to 1 on Friday night for Colorado and they're going to win the cup. I understand why people say that, and I'm curious

to see who's okay to play for the Lightning, but I think they deserve more respect than that. I think that we know now that they are going to show up and they are going to play their hearts out and Vasilevsky is going to give them a chance again. I think Colorado is going to come out like a house on fire. I think that building is going to be crazy, but anybody who thinks Tampa is going to give any less than their best game is crazy. And the other guy I think we should shut out is Kemper

because everybody tonight was waiting for Kemper to fail. And you know what? The goals were a little bit ugly. They were, but he got stronger as the game went on and Hagel had a really tricky chance in overtime and he made a great save on it. I don't blame him on the Sorelli goal. He just got a shot in the face.

His mask came off. It's there on Sorelli's thick and he taps it in. You're right. That's a misspeak. That's a misspeak on my part. Now, the Hedman backhander. Like, I know that backhanders are like, ask any goaltender. Man, good luck reading a backhand.

It's the hardest shot to get a read on. I get that. But that's the only one that I looked at and said, okay. Because up until then, I had no, especially in the first period, a lot of shots. Yeah. Like Darcy Kemper faced a lot of shots. I don't give him any grief on the Sorelli goal. The Hedman one, eh, questionable. There's nothing wrong with that one. The

mask got knocked off. What are you going to do? By the way, that Kemper glove save on Stephen Stamkos, further to your point. Oh, yeah. There are moments where you can just feel if this goes in, Tampa can run away with it. Kemper makes that save on Stamkos, and all of a sudden, everything is cool. I do want to talk about Chernak and blocking the Nathan McKinnon shot and the way that he did it as he turned.

You can tell right away this is not going to be good. I know the story of Colorado in this game was blocking shots, and they did it. The final tally for blocked shots for the Tampa Bay Lightning was 35. It was a huge story for them, but sometimes it comes at a cost, Elliot. And listen, on Wednesday night, it came at a cost. That takes them down to five defensemen, and Chernak has been so valuable for this team. If Tampa is running out of steam or getting tired,

that is not going to help at all in the next game and if you know if Chernak's leaving oh man he's really hurt like he tried the old Zidane O'Chara Braden point just sit on the bench and he had to leave for the overtime I do wonder they said point isn't. I'm curious to see if we're going to see him on Friday night. Although, we've seen him walk out

of the building. Yeah. He was better Wednesday than he was on Monday, but it's still ginger. One more thing I want to ask you about this game, and then we'll get into

some news here, Elliot. The Nick Paul chance, with Gabriel Landeskog getting his stick in Nick Paul's hands. The only reason I pause on this one is that we've seen this called every single time. Do you think Tampa has legit gripe here? That turned into a rugby match on both sides.

If you saw John Cooper postgame, he was angry, angry I believe and I'm pretty sure I'm right that he thought the avalanche had too many men on the ice and let's just watch this team what they've gone through and the battling that's gone on and and we're all in this together players coaches refs everybody but it just it just this's, this one's going to sting much more than others just because I think it was taken on, it was potentially, I don't know. It's hard for me. This is going to be hard for me to speak. I'm going to have to speak. I'll speak with you tomorrow. You're going to see what I mean when you see the winning goal. My heart breaks for the players because we probably still should be playing.

I'll be available tomorrow. So Jeff, I have been soliciting feedback on whether or not this was a good goal. One coach reached out and said, he turned to his wife who he was watching the game with, and said, holy bleep, where did Kadri come from? So he thought it was too many men, and he thinks it should be an automatic review by Toronto in these cases.

Well, in this situation, the NHL is at the event. They're at the Stanley Cup final. He thinks it should be an automatic review. They're at the Stanley Cup final. He thinks it should be an automatic review. Here's another coach saying, Cadry gets the puck at the blue line before McKinnon's even off the ice. He agreed with Cooper that he had it right. And he said, I'm an armchair fan.

And I wanted to throw in my two cents. I had a GM tell me that, yes, he saw six guys on the ice for Colorado, but he thought he saw seven for Tampa Bay. I had one player send me a note saying that was too many men for sure. I have a bunch of Islanders fans in my mentions saying that in game seven last year, Yanni Gord's one nothing game winner was too many men for Tampa. So this is karma for last year, proving once again that Islanders fans have incredibly long memories. Like they never forget a thing. So, you know, I mean, obviously there's some people who agree with it. Obviously there's something there. I think the thing is, Jeff, this was a game where everything was allowed to go.

So you're saying that that goal was destined to happen or something like it was destined to happen? This was just going to be a full-on rodeo? It absolutely was a rodeo. It was a complete rugby match. I know Tampa's not going to like that answer, but so much was allowed to go that we were destined to have that ending. And the thing about that is, that is the NHL's A-referring team. Wes McCauley and Kelly Sutherland are the guys the league wants in charge of a big game. I guess by the time the goal went in, McKinnon had already made the line change, but there were a couple of people, one specific,

who texted me right away and said, I think that's offside. McKinnon is offside on that play. They can review that right away because in overtime, there's no challenges. The league takes over reviews. So I'm betting they looked at it because they don't have to wait for a challenge. reviews. So I'm betting they looked at it because they don't have to wait for a challenge. That potential offside by Nathan McKinnon, I mean, that harkens back to a couple of seasons ago as well with Gabriel Landeskog. Yes, they got burned in the deciding game against San Jose, a goal disallowed because Landeskog didn't get off the ice on a line change. They let it go. And now we'll see. The Stanley Cup will be in the building Friday at Ball Arena.

Quick pause. Back with news of the day, including Paul Maurice in Florida and Pierre-Luc Dubois, free agency, and the future of the Winnipeg Jets. Keep it up. Okay, so there are still some coaching vacancies out there, and we think about Detroit, and we think about Boston, and we think about Chicago, and we think about Winnipeg, but now we can take Florida off that board. Paul Maurice, named as the new head coach of the Florida Panthers,

to which Elliott Friedman says what? This was a really up and down process and a very confusing process. There were some rumors at the NHL awards Tuesday night that Maurice was going into Florida and it just took until the morning for it to come clear. But there were some people at the awards on Tuesday night who said they were hearing it could be Maurice in Florida. I think it depends who you talk to here. I think the Florida version of this is going to be, we wanted to take the emotion out of this. We were incredibly disappointed after the series,

and we had to wait not to overreact one way or the other so we had to do it this way I believe Burnett has had permission to talk to other teams I think the problem with that is I think the other teams looked at it and they said, if Brunette would have his choice, he would rather stay in Florida. So I think he was caught in no man's land. I would guess that's a real sore spot for Brunette that even though he had permission to talk to other teams, he felt the other teams didn't really believe he was a free agent because of

the Panthers came back to them and said, you can be our coach, they felt he would want to do that. So they didn't really see him as available. Like I said, I believe that's a sore spot for him. The Panthers, what they ultimately decided to do here was, they want to win the Stanley Cup, they feel their window is now, and they went with someone more experienced who they felt could bring them a Stanley Cup. And that's a decision they made.

I think Burnett is hurt. I think he's disappointed. I don't think he's going to stay. I've heard he's already got options to be an assistant coach next year. I wouldn't be surprised if a team like Philadelphia is one of them. I think he still wants to be an assistant coach next year. I wouldn't be surprised if a team like Philadelphia is one of them. I think he still wants to be a head coach and I could see a team like Chicago, for example, being interested in him. And I think he would be interested in that

job because he's got some history there, but the Panthers feel that they handled this properly, took the emotion out of it and made the best decision for the future of their franchise i think the brunette loyalists and i have not spoken to him but i would suspect him himself feel that he was not handled properly that while he was able to talk to other teams the fact that the the president's trophy winner could potentially come back to him they didn't think he was a serious candidate at that time. And I think he felt there were some points in there where he kind of got the impression he was coming back.

So look, it's a bitter divorce. It's War of the Roses with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. That's a very dated reference, but a very cool pull nonetheless. It's a very dated reference. It really is. But that's okay, because that's a great movie. Here's what very dated reference, but a very cool pull nonetheless. It's a very dated reference. It really is. But that's okay because that's a great movie. Here's what I wonder about because this decision was made

because of obviously what happened in the playoffs. Yes. But I wonder whether this was done because of how he coached against John Cooper or maybe was this how he coached against Peter LaViolette and the Washington Capitals. Losing to Tampa is one thing. I get it. It's a defending Stanley Cup champions.

It's hard to play Tampa. I'm not buying that. I get it. I just wonder when the doubt crept in. Was it the Tampa series or was it before? Because don't forget, it wasn't as if they ripped through the Washington Capitals at all like I just wonder how many seeds of doubt I don't think that's true maybe there's some Jeff like you could be totally right but you know playoff series are supposed to be hard they were in trouble in that Washington

series they were down Washington was doing a great job of clogging up the neutral zone and they found a way but to me, that's a good job. You took a team that was experienced, veteran coach, and you found a way to overcome a good tactical plan against you. To me, this is all Tampa. And it's also because of who it was. It's always worse for fans and team when you lose to your rival. And right now, now Florida they're gaining

respect I think they're doing a lot of very good things but you know where you really get measured is against your fiercest rival you know Toronto fans were you know really pissed off last year because it was Montreal and they hate losing to Montreal and so year, Florida gets wiped out by Tampa, and that makes it worse because it's the big brother of the state pushing you around. I can't imagine the Washington thing was a problem. I really can't. I thought they found a way.

Winnipeg Jets. Let's get there. You reported on Pierre-Luc Dubois and his interest in testing free agency. We've talked plenty about the Winnipeg Jets, not just about the coaching search and Barry Trotz, but what this roster looks like next season. As we record this podcast in the wee hours of Thursday morning, what's the very latest with the Winnipeg Jets?

I have a buddy who's a big fan of the Jets. He sent me a note about what a tough day it was because there were reports today, Frank Cervelli reporting, that Blake Wheer is also on the trade block and i believe that's true i think the wheeler thing though might be more of a mutual thing i just wonder if both wheeler and the jets kind of think it's time and they're willing to work together should that be necessary to find something there i think that's that's possible you know wheeleler was the captain.

He was a huge part of the team. He was a very popular player in the market. As this person said to me, you know, for a long time, you know, Wheeler was a veteran who stayed in Winnipeg and how meaningful that was to them. Bufflin stayed in Winnipeg and how meaningful that was to them. Bufflin stayed in Winnipeg and how meaningful that was to them.

And now the possibility that Wheeler could be gone. And the thing with Dubois, he's got two years to unrestricted free agency. I believe he plans to test it and that's what he informed them in two years.

I think the Jets are still hopeful that they can change his mind and that is their plan. I don't want to put a handicap on it one way or the other, because one thing I've learned is two years is a long time. And to predict what's going to happen in two years is foolish. The other thing I know is this, is that Kevin shovel day off hung on to Jacob Truba when there were a lot of

rumors about what Truba wanted to do. And he hung on to him until he absolutely had to trade him. I don't believe there's a trade request here from Dubois. I don't think he did that. I think he just said he's going to leave it open for a couple of years. But it'll be interesting to see if Sheveldayoff tries to show that there's reason to stay or he decides to make a move. He's been really patient. And like I said, the reaction I got, which is that the Jets hope Dubois will be a Jet for a long time.

That says to me that at least they're considering the possibility of can we make this work in a way that makes them happy? You know, it was interesting when I spoke to Kevin Shevelday off at the at the combine in Buffalo a couple of weeks ago. And maybe it's just because we're at the combine. And so we're all talking about prospects and the draft and everything. But he did focus a lot of the conversation about the Winnipeg Jets around Cole Perfetti and Vili Hainala and moving in younger players and putting the accent on this next wave or next generation of Winnipeg Jets. I don't think that they're going to go through the classic rebuild here in Winnipeg, but it does, like if you're Pierre-Luc Dubois, you're probably going to have to get used

to seeing a lot of new faces and a lot of new players coming into that dressing room in the next couple of seasons. So I wonder if that tempers anything about how Pierre-Luc Dubois feels or what his decision is going to be. It sounds like the next couple of seasons. So I wonder if that tempers anything about how Pierre-Luc Dubois feels or what his decision is going to be. It sounds like the next couple of years, Winnipeg is going to try to restock the prospect cupboards.

And we talked about Chaz Lucius. There's another name that he went out of his way to mention as well. It sounds like they're going to start to move in some younger players here, Frege. I think this comes at a really hard time for the Jets. I don't know if we've talked about this before on the pod, but if we haven't, we'll do it again.

I had someone who called me recently and they just said, you have no idea how hard a season this was in Manitoba. Like other places, no fans. You know, forget the on-ice stuff for a second. But also, it was a really challenging thing, the Jets, to navigate their fan base. I mean, who wanted vaccination and who didn't? And who wanted masks in the arena and who didn't?

And I'm not interested in the debates over what is right and what is wrong. Because we all have our positions and nobody's position is changing. But if you're a big business that needs to manage this, this person said to me, you have no idea what a hard challenge that was. And you know what? That's fair. I probably don't. But he said that was huge stress for the Jets

because you want to get your fans back in the building. You want to appeal to them to get them back in the building. And you're not even only worried about just the product on the ice. You're also dealing with that, which I understand was a huge issue. And so now you're moving past this. And we're finally moving in a direction here where you think that problem isn't going to be as severe. And then you get all this. And it's been really challenging for them.

I know they're also winning on trots. You know, we'll see where that goes. But every franchise gets its challenges. Jets are weathering some really tough ones right here. People can say, well, the Jets are right about this. The Jets are wrong about that. You know, I think some of them are also just about coming out of covid and the challenges they faced and it really stressed them out and strained a lot of

things and i wouldn't want to have to be a person who was navigating that kind of challenge and you know for each and i i don't think that the barry trotz decision or their desire to hire barry trotz has anything to do with marketing i i don't think that's why they're doing it. I think he's an excellent coach and they feel he would significantly help this team. But to what you're saying, I think the Winnipeg Jets need a really good news story right there and a sidebar of hiring Barry Trotz,

A, because he's a great coach, but also B, because he's a Manitoban, does a lot for this organization. I don't think you're just hiring a coach here. Again, I don't want to confuse anything. One, you're hiring him because he's a good coach, if you can get him. But two, the sidebar to this is it's a great story in Manitoba.

The local boy comes back. I think that's what Winnipeg needs right now. They need a good news story. Okay. NHL Awards, Elliot. Sure. Because I heard it on social media. I'm sure you heard it as well. People always have questions about why you made certain

decisions uh one player over another player one player bumped down too much one player much too high i had a couple of them that seemed to be really uh hot points and i'll go over those here in a couple of seconds but which were the ones that you got for lack of a better term the most grief over for me i didn't get too many one I think I would really have back was Sorelli. And I realize you do this before the playoffs, but I think if there's one I could have over, it would be Anthony Sorelli. I didn't have him in my selfie list.

That's the one I think I would do over. But other than that, I thought it was okay. I got a lot less hate this year than normal. Maybe after the podcast comes out, people will start looking to hate my stuff more. But I got less hate this year than normal. What about you? First of all, unlike you, I did not have Sorelli in my selkie. My selkie was Bergeron, Lindholm, Marcus Foligno, Brad Marchand, and Valerian Achushkin.

I did not have Anthony Sorelli in there. My ballot was same top two as you, Lindholm second and Bergeron first. Then I had Philippe Gonneau, who I will stand by because I believe he put everybody in the Kings in the right spot this year. Then I had Barkov and Sebastian Ajo,

who was a key member of one of the league's best penalty kills. That's why I put them there. I wish though I had Sorelli there. Okay. There's a couple that I heard it from. So I had, for the Hart Trophy, I had Igor Shcherkin as number one. I don't think you were the only one.

I know somebody else who did, too. I think there are a few people, as it turns out, that had him number one. And the reason I did that, I know there was some question, and you and I had talked about this about games played. I didn't look at the games played. I looked at how much value he added to his team. I'm trying really hard to stick to the definition of the trophy. The most

valuable to his team. I look at quality starts for a net minder. If you look at positive goals saved above expectation, he gave the Rangers 38 quality starts. He gave them games that are very winnable games, right?

38. But the big one to me where I made the decision of Shosturkin over Auston Matthews or Connor McDavid, and that was my one, two, three, Shosturkin, Matthews, and McDavid, I think the hardest thing for a goaltender to do in a salary cap NHL is steal games. I think you can steal a period. I think you can steal two. But asking a goalie to steal a game, I think that's a lot.

So if you look at goals saved above expected and the final goal differential, he stole 10 games for the New York Rangers. Now listen, a lot of this happened early when the Rangers were getting caved in and bleeding chances. But he himself added 20 points to the New York Rangers. Like, Elliot, we haven't seen numbers like this

going back to, I mean, interestingly enough, Henrik Lundqvist. Like, these are Lundqvist numbers, Elliot. Like, that's how much this guy meant to his team. Like, think back to the I mean, interestingly enough, Henrik Lundqvist. These are Lundqvist numbers, Elliot. That's how much this guy meant to his team. Think back to the beginning of the season. Rangers would win all these games. They'd get totally caved in, and we'd all say, it's a good thing they have Igor Shcherkin

because they had no business being in this one. The big one for me is, single-handedly, he gave this team 20 points and 38 quality starts that to me screams mvp and that's why i went with shisterkin i don't have a problem with that jeff like some people might but i don't think shisterkin first overall is bad i don't i don't like ripping other people's voting because my voting isn't always great there was was some weird stuff this year. There's no question about that. Like, I mean, McDavid and Matthews were low or off the ballot in some places.

Yossi, I thought, was low or off the ballot in some places. Look, I respectfully disagree with it, but I'm not perfect, and I don't proclaim to be. So I had Kale McCarra, one, Victor Hedman, two, Charlie McAvoy, three, Roman Yossi four. I think that's too low. Jacob Slavin five. Here's why I had it. I had it because of deployment reasons. Kale McCarr faced top competition. Charlie McAvoy faced top competition. Roman Yossi didn't face top competition. That's where they had the Ekholm pair.

That's what John Hines used. That was his choice. So Roman Yossi didn't face that. Now, he put up an insane amount of points and you can't ignore that. And that's why he was in my list. But if you're looking at the definition of the trophy, like the full complement of what a defenseman does

and who a defenseman is and what they do. For my money, you have to face top competition. Now, you can make the argument that Victor Hedman didn't face top competition. Like a lot of those hard minutes were absorbed by McDonough and Chernak. That combination, that's true. minutes were absorbed by McDonough and Chernak. That combination, that's true. But if you go head to head, Roman Yossi, Victor Hedman, Hedman's workload was tougher than Yossi's. Honestly, bud, I think you're overthinking it. I really do. The guy had 90 something points. He carried the Predators. He carried them. Here's the thing you're forgetting. This year, people thought

they were going to be like 28th in the league. I thought the Preds this year was more about UC Soros than Roman Yossi. Like, I'll hear Soros all day. You can always say that with a goalie. Like, my Norris this year was Yossi 1, Makar 2, McAvoy 3,

Hedman 4, and Ekblad 5. I don't like putting Hedman down that low. I really don't. As a matter of fact, it makes me sick to my stomach to even say that. But I think Yossi fourth this year, that's too low. The guy had a historic season. Yes, I do agree with you. Quality of competition matters.

But sometimes I just think that you have such an unbelievable year. It doesn't matter. And I think this was that year for Yossi. And I would have made the same argument for Makar. Well, no, Makar was a beast at both ends of the ice. And Makar faced everybody. To me, this was Kel Makar's season going away. And I got no problem with that.

You know, I have no problem with any of those three finalists winning the award, but I don't agree with Yossi Ford. You are are fired from a podcast that's what people tweeted at me this morning you should be fired from the podcast so there you go elliot friedman has fired me from the uh from the 32 thoughts podcast amal you have the final vote jeff says he can stay i say he has to go amal does jeff stay or does he go? He stays. And boy, Amal put a little something extra in your envelope this week. Thank you, Amal. Well done. Well, you forgot I have seven votes. You're both fired.

Actually, Amal, I can't fire you. I would be completely lost without you. If this was a democracy, it would happen. No, there's no such thing. You have a quick thought on awards night? Because I really thought your presentation was great. And that young man that you were with was outstanding. Yeah, Jake Theriault. I just want to say a couple of things. First of all, I think it's important to know that the big guests behind the scenes were just so gracious. There were a few players that Jake wanted to take pictures with.

And I walked over and, you know, I just asked, can you come take a picture with Jake? And they were just fantastic. I will tell you, not every player had a media relations person there. But one team that did was Anaheim, Alex Gilchrist, a longtime media relations guy from the Ducks. You know, I said, you know, Zgris was doing some pictures. I said, can he come over? He said, for sure, he'll do it. Zegris was doing some pictures.

I said, can he come over? And he said, for sure, he'll do it. And the one thing that he said was, can you give me a couple of bits of information about Jake's story? Because Zegris will want to know some details to talk. You know, like they were all like that. You know, he took pictures with Matthews. He took pictures with Shusterkin.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some guys, but they were all very gracious. And that's very important. Kenan Thompson, I have to say, that guy can work a room. That guy can work a room. He just went around the room to every table, shook hands, took pictures, like first class, first class person. And Ashley Brewer, too, like just really friendly, friendly person. When you have a night like that, where superstars are mixing with quote unquote general public, it's so incumbent on those players to be gracious. I also think it's so incumbent on people who say hi to them,

you know, don't monopolize the time, say hi, get a picture, say a couple of things, then let them move on to the next person. I just thought it was so good. They were so gracious with each other's time it was a real success jake is a big bruins fan favorite player is brad marchand he's a big fan but he loves like a bunch of the guys on that team i think he mentioned grizzly too was another guy who's been very gracious with him but you know the one guy he said has really stood out has been taylor hall and I said, have you seen Taylor Hall's great acting?

And he goes, it's father. It's there too, Mike. He goes, what do you mean? I showed them our Microsoft commercial. And they were. That's awesome. That's awesome. Did you say, oh, that was recorded in a hotel room in Pittsburgh two weeks before me and Merrick shot our bits for it.

No, I didn't. I actually didn't know the exact location in the situation like there was a lot that could have gone wrong with that event because they had to do it so quickly yeah like basically when they got to the stanley cup semifinals they knew that could not be in colorado but it could be in edmonton it could be in tampa and it could have been in new york so they had to juggle a lot in a short period of time to figure out it was going to be in Tampa. And Steve Meyer, who we've had on the podcast before, him and his

staff did a really good job of putting that together. Absolutely. Well done. Well done by Steve and his crew there. That was a really special night too. Great seeing the Snow family as well. Just wonderful, wonderful people. Big ovation for them too. Loved it. Big ovation for them too. Just wonderful, wonderful people.

Big ovation for them too. Loved it. Big ovation for them too. Loved it. Yes. Just loved it. All right. And hope you love the podcast today.

Taking us out is a five-piece alternative folk rock band that emerged from the heart of the Canadian Rockies in 2009. Shred Kelly have released five full-length records since their inception, pairing acoustic instrumentation with electric counterparts, harmonies, and driving rhythm. Off their Like a Rising Sun record, here's Shred Kelly with Roman Candle Eyes on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Standing around in this white room, windows with endless long views. Think I can hear you calling

Think I can see your face Heart racing Tears my eyes are making Forgetting all the days when I lived for myself Floating around in this headspace Trying to clear my airwaves Drowning in a blurry haze Sinking to your eyes

Oh, those blue seas Bringing me down to my knees But that shoots right through me Lightning in the sky I can see forever I can feel your cries And you caught me with your Roman candlelight

I can be your future One that never dies When I look into your Roman candlelight