32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Today Is Free Quote #@$%&! Day

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Jeff and Elliotte open this edition of the podcast by talking about the Philadelphia Flyers and the precarious situation surrounding goalie Ivan Fedotov. They turn their attention to the team itself, as the Flyers deal with the pressure of a tight playoff race (9:39). Next, what's up in Buffalo after the Sabres were blown out by the Senators on Wednesday night (17:51) and that's followed by a discussion about the Eastern Conference "turtle derby" (24:25). Then, Jeff and Elliotte dive into a heated debate over Mark Scheifele's two, five, & ten minute penalties on Thursday night and the Winnipeg Jets losing five games in a row (27:49). The guys also talk about the Predators winning streak coming to an end at the hands of the Coyotes (39:52). Finally, they get into Paul Maurice's all-time podium quote after the Florida Panthers clinched a playoff spot (41:39). The guys answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line (58:04).  Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

I'll tell you who agrees with me. When this podcast drops, you know where I'm going to be right and you're going to be wrong? In the province of Manitoba. Oh yes, I know that is true. Merrick hates Manitoba. He hates it. He has told me before, it should be cut out of Canada with an exacto knife. Plenty to get to on a Friday morning. Welcome to it once again, 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation.

Shramadi producing American Freedmen once again, and we'll start with the Philadelphia Flyers who lose to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. Park that for a second, though. Is the story around Philadelphia Russian goaltenders or what, Elliot? Ivan Fedotov and Alexei Kolesov. To say nothing of, as I was told on Thursday night,

maybe the best Russian goaltender of them all, Yegor Zavrigin, who was taken in the third round by the Philadelphia Flyers. But maybe that's a story for another day. What's happening with Philly and the goalies, Frej? First of all, is that a real person, the third goalie you named? Yes, it is. The third round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers playing in the MHL and the VHL. Okay, so Kolasov, the Flyer fans knew that he was coming over towards the end of this season.

And he is expected to start in the American Hockey League that was expected now what wasn't expected was the Fedotov situation and so there were some rumblings on Thursday morning that something was up with Fedotov And not long after I got that call, there was a tweet that came out from the KHL saying that Fedotov's contract in CSKA Moscow had been terminated. And basically that meant that he was a free agent, sort of. He was free to leave his Russian contract and his rights had been held by the Flyers. And for those of you who are familiar with this story and Flyer fans would be, he signed a contract with the Flyers a couple of years ago. It was believed that he would be able to come to North America to play for them. They wanted him to come to North America to play for them. They wanted him to come to North America and play for

them. However, all of a sudden in Russia came the announcement that he was being accused of evading his military service and he was not allowed to leave. He was prevented from leaving and instead he had signed a two-year extension to play there well it didn't go very well he didn't play well uh the word over there was he was clearly unhappy you know they also lost a basically an arbitration case uh against the nhl and they were found to be in violation. They just didn't care. They kept him there. But eventually, the way he was playing there, from what I was told, and this is obviously a North American slant to this, it just became very clear to everybody that the current situation was untenable.

He didn't want to be there. He wasn't playing well, and the Flyers wanted him in North America. And I think all the various parties, the International Ice Hockey Federation, the NHL, the Russian team, the Russian League, the Flyers had been working to get this done. And I think one of the reasons it was so secret is obviously whenever you're dealing with all of these various parties there's a lot of moving parts and nothing is done until it's done and so when the announcement came on Thursday that his contract had been terminated I heard that he was coming to Philly and that he is going to play for the Flyers. And nobody denied that to me.

People were very careful about saying where exactly it all stood, where he was in terms of transit, what was going to happen. But people told me, if you say that he is free to join with the Flyers and he will be joining the Flyers or was en route to joining the Flyers, you would be safe to do so. And that's where we are. And basically, his contract with Philadelphia had been told. And, you know, for example, one of the most famous told contracts in the NHL was Alexei Yashin's. contracts in the NHL was Alexi Yashins. He sat out one year from Ottawa and instead of that year being erased, when it's told, it's carried over. You don't get credit for having played it. So that one-year deal that Philadelphia signed him to was carried over. It's expected he will

be joining the Flyers under that contract unless somebody tells me otherwise he's going to be a UFA at the end of the season but Philly gets a look at him so one of the things that people were dealing with here and was slightly complicating because it's really not that complicated compared to everything else that's happened here. Is that Felix Sandstrom, Philly has used all four of their call-ups. After the trade deadline, the roster rules change a bit. You can have as many players on your roster as you want as long as you're under the cap. There's no longer a limit of 23 necessarily. However, you're only allowed four call-ups after the trade deadline and philly

has used them all so felix sandstrom is up on an emergency basis and so what everybody was trying to figure out is could sandstrom be sent back down and once fedotov is being is activated he can be activated on that emergency basis and i'm under the impression that all this is going to be worked out but the bottom line is after a very lengthy saga that really did turn ugly at one point it appears as if fedotov will get the opportunity to join and play for the flyers and if that's what he wants and that's what his family wants good for him yeah that that's what he wants, and that's what his family wants. Good for him. Yeah, that's what I was told, was that the plan was for Fedotov to play with the Philadelphia Flyers, and we get to see what a 6'8 goaltender looks like in the national...

Because we've never seen that before. We haven't seen that yet, Elliot. And Alexei Kolasov was going to Lehigh Valley. The one interesting... By the way, anything more on that situation? I want to sort of transition this to the Philadelphia Flyers and have a question for you around them right now. Anything more we think we should know about Kolesov or Fedotov right now? I don't think so.

I like everything I just said there was what I know and what people told me. Like the thing about these situations is there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Like, you know, you remember those stories about McGilney defecting or Peter Klima coming over and they were very clandestine and the world was a very different place then. And people said, yes, the world has changed, but still these things are very complicated. These aren't, this isn't just the nhl you have to deal with this is russia this is immigration this is getting the proper paperwork visas and and whatever and you should never jump to a conclusion and while people were willing to

say yes this is looks like it's going to happen. Nobody's going to make an announcement until everything is done because these are complicated things. And so everything I've said here is what I know. And people have said you are safe to say, but you shouldn't really go any farther than that. And you shouldn't make any grand pronouncements until the NHL or someone else does so. But it is safe to say he is en route to joining

the flyers and is expected to play for them excellent now the philadelphia flyers themselves yep so thursday night for the islanders uh very good night for the islanders the washington capitals lost their game the philadelphia flyers lost their game. The Philadelphia Flyers lost their game. Hey, hey, hey, it's looking better for the Islanders. We're still alive to see the New York Islanders. That's right. The Detroit Red Wings lost on Thursday as well. Again, we're playing the game of who wants these playoff spots.

But for the Philadelphia Flyers, you know, something really interesting. I don't know whether, I mean, listen, it might only be one game and maybe I'm just guilty of reading too much into one game. But when you look at the schedule that the Philadelphia Flyers have down the stretch here, not trying to offend any of these teams, but in comparison to the Washington Capitals or in comparison to the New York Islanders or for that matter, the Detroit Red Wings, it's an easier schedule. You know, they had Montreal on Thursday. They have Chicago, then the Islanders,

Buffalo, Columbus, back to back, Montreal again, the Rangers, and then the New Jersey Devils. There are very, very winnable games here for the Philadelphia Flyersers what i can't help but thinking watching the game on thursday was is the pressure of expectation getting to this team that is in well supposed to be in a rebuild right now i don't season long i don't play play play you don't buy that i i don't buy that i just think that i think the flyers are a little bit thin don't forget they're missing three

defensemen who should be playing for them right and i think also urson Urson, they're down a goalie too. And so, look, Seeler's supposed to be back this weekend. Drysdale's not far away. And Daniel Breer said the other day that Rasmus Ristolainen, he's the one they're not sure about. But the other guys are coming back and you know now they could have another goalie too although you know the adjustment Russia to North America you know could be a big one you never know how someone's going to handle it I just think that

the the Flyers like there's been I had a chance to talk to Keith Jones on Wednesday night. And by the way, Jones and Breer, there's one thing I don't like about these two guys. Their vaults, their vaults. Like this is bad for reporting. You know, this is the second time. And I think it shows. Keith, you used to be one of us. Come on.

Yeah, I know. And so was Breer, like basically, yes. He did, I believe he did some media work too and they were tight on goche before they traded him they were tight on mishkov around the draft and and the russian factor like i said it's so difficult to handicap at times and difficult to get a handle on at times that you have to be quiet about this stuff but you know one of the things I talked with Jones about on Wednesday is that I asked him was there ever a time in this year where you really thought that you said the team they're gonna make it like they have proven to me that they're good enough and And he said, yes, many times. And he really credited the players a lot,

especially some of their young players. But, you know, what he also said was, I think that we've learned that our team can handle the roller coaster of the season because they've showed at times times there have been times I thought that we were okay and they struggled and I was like uh-oh is this it and then they write themselves after they struggle so I when I look at the flyers I say number one they've shown more staying power than we expected so we have to respect that and number two I think they're the the the depth has really been tested and when I look at their like I see some teams out there like Toronto's a perfect example of this Toronto's a team right now that when they're battling injuries or they're battling

problems they've proven they've got extra players who they can put in there, especially on defense, who can do the job for them. Like for example, on Tuesday night, Lilligren gets hurt. Giordano plays for the first time in a month and he scores. And between Benoit and going out and getting Edmondson, they've had guys like that all year. Philly, I think, is a little thinner. And now with their D coming back, I think they're going to be okay. You know, Jeff, the other thing is I did want to mention something. I asked Keith Jones, like it's been a crazy couple weeks there. Like considering everything that has happened,

and you think everybody would be ecstatic about everything that's happened between couturier and some of the other stuff uh it's been really noisy there and jones had a really interesting comment about that uh he said i don't mind that i think some teams are really afraid of that in this day and age in the social media age but Jones said that you know he he he reminded when he got acquired by Philadelphia he was he was like wow I can't believe some of the noise that's always around this team but in the Ed Snyder Bob Clark era and those are two guys who knew what they were doing they they didn't mind that. They wanted the flyers always to be known. Hey, the flyers are here or people are talking about the flyers. And I really got the

impression that in Jones's mind in particular, it's better that people are talking about us than nobody cares about us at all. And so I thought that was really fascinating. But I asked him about Tortorella because there has been a rumor going around. And, you know, Doug McLean went on Kipper and Bourne last week and he talked about, he said he heard that Tortorella wanted to leave coaching and go into management in Columbus and Yermo Kekalainen didn't want to be part of that. But if you'll remember last week on this pod I mentioned that too the rumor that you know maybe Tortorella didn't want to coach anymore and I asked Jones about it and I'm going to write about it but he said quote that is not even something that's entered any conversation he's the coach and really good at it and he also said

that he thinks Tortorella has played a major role in being where they are, which is true. So, you know, I wanted to mention that I am going to write about it, but I wanted to mention it. And I also should mention that, you know, Tortorella's had an interesting week. First of all, he walked it back on Felix Sandstrom. He apologized for the way he reacted to a question about it, but also Tortorella pointed out, and I, you know, when we talked about Tortorella not talking to the media, one of the things I said was, I always wonder if there's a reason here that we don't know about. And he came out on Thursday morning and he said, look, in some of these recent cases,

I had some family that I hadn't seen in a while basically and I wanted to see them and you know I think internally the organization understood and and there he was he says it's not going to be an issue anymore and there he was after the game so that's a couple things like obviously they're focused on the playoffs now I think they're going to be okay Jeff I think they're going to be all right but. I think they're going to be all right. But I just thought some interesting things that Jones had to say about not being afraid of the noise. It's like the old shock jock line. I'd rather they hate me than ignore me.

And also just saying the idea that Tortorella is not going to be the coach. He said it's something that has not entered any conversation. Two quotes. I believe Oscar Wilde was his first one. The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. You're really pulling out the Oscar Wilde quotes this month, right?

I think that was Oscar Wilde. I'm not 100% sure, but I am sure about this one. And it is one of my favorite quotes from Fred Shiro. When Dave Schultz complained about coverage of the schultz dogs don't bark at cars no but you like that one you said that a few times before yeah that's a that's a pet of mine um pardon the pun um fred shiro when dave schultz came into his office complaining about coverage who's getting in the hockey news and shiro said well you want to make it all go away and dave said yeah and fred said okay the the answer is easy say nothing do nothing be nothing now get out of my office that is such a fred shiro philadelphia flyers thing to say and i will

use this opportunity by the way um if you want to learn more about you know elliott mentioned ed snyder there a couple of seconds ago the former former owner, the late owner of the Philadelphia Flyers. One of the best hockey books I've read recently is Alan Bass's book, Ed Snyder, The Last Sports Mogul. It's fantastic. And he was like, to your point, Elliot, he was all about, we are the Flyers. We are out in front. We don't care what people are saying about us as long as they're talking about us. That guy understood it. That guy got it. And that is completely Philadelphia Flyers. Now,

the Buffalo Sabres, on the other hand. Tough one on Wednesday night. They lose to the Ottawa Senators. 6-2 is the final. The first period was an ugly, ugly story. And it did seem like it was a team that just came back from a long road trip and had quit. That's what that first period looked like. And they got booed off the ice by the fans who were in attendance. What do you think of Buffalo right now, Elliot?

It's tough there. You know, I have to say that I got one really sarcastic sabers fan that i'm friendly with um you know so they got as you said they got booed off the ice um and i i can't fault the sabers fans for that uh in in that particular case you come back from a road trip you're down five nothing after one you should get booed off the ice. I know there's been a big debate about should the Sabres fans do that. You cannot fault any Sabres fan for that.

It's Gord Stelic's old line, Jeff, if you're going to stink, stink on the road. And that was a night where I love the sabers fans great fan base blue collar town you pay your money you see that you're entitled and one sabers fan i know he sent me a note because alex tuck talked about how he disagreed with it on the podcast he said tuck's going to be asking to come on your podcast again i said i got I got news for you. That guy talked to me long enough. He's never going to want to talk to me for seven years. But you can't blame the fans for that one. It was a low moment for the Sabres.

I heard internally it was a really hard night. Like that's one of those nights where you leave and whether you're a player you're a coach or you're an executive you know that that was really bad and those kind of nights are when you know if you don't recover from that like first of all a man one manager told me like that's the kind of night where if you're the manager you're going into your dressing room the next the next day you can whether it's the next practice or before the next game that's one of those conversations where the manager has to go in there and say that is not acceptable and you also have to make it very clear and i think everybody knows this that if it

like look the sabers aren't going to make the playoffs you know we're playing out the season but that's one of those where you look at and you start looking around you say if it doesn't get better even in the final 10 games after everything that's happened changes get made because of games like that you know like like i'll tell you someone was watching the other night uh a guy I know who works for a West Coast team, and he was watching Montreal 4-0 over Seattle. And he sent me the same text. He said, he's like, these are games that lead to changes. that game but basically what he was saying that if you continue to go on that slide that's where people get traded in the long run or people lose jobs and and i think in buffalo a game like that one if it doesn't get if you're not better at home and fast and i mean fast and and they've got a big one on saturday night like jeff you know we're both southern ontario guys toronto could be 75 and oh and buffalo could be oh and 75 and the sabres could beat them nine

to one at home like we've seen lots of those games lots of those games that goes back to the don edwards bob sovaitis yes that that is that has been the story of these two teams almost since the sabers inception of 1970 you're 100 right yeah so you know so it doesn't matter how bad the sabers might be or how good the lease might be buffalo is a chamber of horrors for them but if you're the sabers and especially because it's the leafs and their fans, they hate the Leafs for the most part, except they all make the money back on their season ticket packages by selling those games to the Leaf fans. That's funny because I got a note after the game against the Ottawa Senators. No, it was how many Buffalo Sabres fans are selling their tickets

immediately after their game for Saturday against the Maple Leafs. I hope the Sabres fans don't get mad at me for this, but we know they all do it anyway. Like that, that is a story that's old as time, but it would be one of those games where there would be, you know, 150 penalty minutes on the ice and 150 fights in the stands.

Like that's what those games were like. But that game against Toronto on Saturday night, those Sabres players, they know they, those Sabres players, they know. After that game on Wednesday, that game on Saturday night, it has to be like game seven. In the eyes of their fans,

they got to play that like it's game seven of the Stanley Cup final. The problem is there's a game in between tonight against the New jersey devil doesn't matter like i know i know what you're saying about saturday night and i get it talking in canada it's a big stage etc but do they not have to have a really good showing against the new jersey devils on friday even of course even of course they do get to saturday yeah you know what you're right i'm jumping a bit ahead of things you're totally right i can't argue uh but you know jeff let me have my narrative okay don't interfere with my

narratives okay that is narrative interference it's a two-minute minor minor and a gross misconduct i should know better i should know better that's your, as Alfred Hitchcock would say, the, was it the, the, the, the, the frozen,

frozen chicken dinner, leave something a little bit wrong in the script that leaves people to think about it all the way home until they get home to open their fridge and have the frozen chicken dinner, something along those lines. I understand from an Alfred Hitchcock point of view. Okay. Elsewhere,

you mentioned the Toronto Maple Leafs. So they beat the Washington Capitals. I don't know what the bigger story here is the maple leaves win or considering the tampa bay lightning are chasing toronto right now the toronto maple leaves win five to one tyler bertuzzi with a pair of goals that the washington capitals lost this one and the caps as you know just like detroit just like Islanders, can't squander any games here. No, I mean, you can't. It's, what have we called this? The turtle derby, the snails race.

Oh, going backwards into the wild card. It's very rare that the Capitals get pounded when Lindgren plays in goal. He's been an enormous difference maker for them, but they were really listless in this one. You know, it was a weird night at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. You know, Kane and Zarnik got sick. And what did Detroit get outshot 15-3 in the first period?

Like they were never in that game. You know, Washington was never really in that game. Detroit was never really in that game. Detroit was never really in that game. The Philly game was weird. At one point, there were more goals disallowed than there were goals scored. But I give the Islanders a lot of credit because we've talked about how they've gone down easy. The Islanders thought they scored to go up 1-0. It was disallowed.

And then Florida went right down the ice and scored. And I was looking at this and I was like, this game might end the 8-0 Panthers. And the Islanders found a way. That game for one night, they kind of reminded me about the Islanders of recent vintage that used to scratch and claw and find their way to win. That was a game where they had a lot of excuses to lose.

That's a night where you go and you play the slots. You look around and you say, okay, they lost, they lost, they lost, and we won in a tough game where people weren't expecting us to win. Let's go play the slots because I might get the three cherries on this one this is a night where i might get the the three sevens or the three cherries so that was you know that was a great great win uh for the islanders but you know it's i mean and you know you talked about the devils that that's a huge game for the devils now against the Sabres. Only one game on Friday, and that's a massive, massive game for the Devils. Because they've been given the opportunity there, a big opportunity.

And they're playing well. They've won two games in a row. Timo Meier's cooking. Jake Allen's cooking. You're right. And now the Islanders have jumped over them by a single point uh and do have a game in hand uh don't have a tiebreaker against anybody but yeah they're the island they gotta win outright this this is this isn't one that the new jersey devils can squander

not by any stretch of the have to have it i hate saying must win but it's a it's a must win so i hate myself again. Vegas and Winnipeg. I know you're working the Maple Leafs game against the Washington Capitals. I'm not sure how much he had a chance to watch the Vegas Golden Knights and the Winnipeg Jets. But now they have lost five games in a row. Those Winnipeg Jets have. Ivan Barbashev with a pair in this one. Logan Thompson.

Elliott. Yes. Logan Thompson was dynamite. Yes, he was. in this one. Logan Thompson, Elliott. Logan Thompson was dynamite. Yes, he was. In this game. One of Logan Thompson's best performances of the season. And it seemed as if, and I do like to go out of my way to mention Pavel Dorofeev,

who I think is going to be an excellent player. Really good player. Like a fine there by the Golden Knights. Like a real fine. Third round draft pick in, I want to say, 2019. But the situation where Haig caught Nemestnikov and then Shifley came in to fight him, it seemed as if a lot changed there.

I think in Winnipeg's mind, Haig was going to get the five and the boot. Instead, he got the minor and Shifley ended up with the two, the five, and the 10. And that was it for his night. And it seemed as if everything sort of collapsed on Winnipeg from there. Nonetheless, that was that game. But the bigger story is now Elliott, the Winnipeg Jets have now lost five games in a row.

Well, you know, first of all, I wanted to talk about that. Like I wanted to talk about that Shifley play because like in, in live action, Hague was given a major. You know why they do that? Yes. But here, like,

Hey, don't interrupt me. I'm on a roll here. Oh, sorry. Okay. You cook, you cook.

You know, like, like I know why they do it and I don't interrupt me. I'm on a roll here. Oh, sorry. Okay, you cook. You cook. Look, I know why they do it, and I don't disagree with it. Same. I don't disagree with it. Call the major and then take the look. You know, like, for example, one thing, just let me, as you know, I can never tell a story in a straight line. Like, I have to go in 46 different directions.

And they say this country has no poets. Ladies and gentlemen, Elliot Fried. I was talking to a GM on Wednesday and, you know, we were talking about some of the added reviews and he was playing, his team was playing on Tuesday night. So he didn't see the high state, the Edmonton Winnipeg game where there was the penalty called on the oilers that was winnipeg getting themselves right the one on peonk and i said go look at it and he said and he

texted me back and he said it's a good thing that that is reviewable next year and i and you know so then we started talking and he called me back and we started talking and he said you know I say do you ever worry that there's going to be too many reviews and he says I understand why the league feels that way sometimes at the top like Bettman thinks about that a lot and you know and media and fans sometimes think about that but he says as a manager I you know I think our group feels get the call right. Like, you know, Jeff, we joked about that coach saying, hey, I'm there. The NHL, we're stuck here, so you're going to be here too. You know, I think the managers feel a lot of the same way.

Just get the call right. So they call Haig for the major. And because Shifley fights Haig, he gets two plus five plus 10. But then they review it and Haig gets downgraded. It's no longer a major. It's now a two-minute penalty, right? Here's the problem I have with that. Not the review.

I'm good with that. I have with that. Not the review. I'm good with that. But if the referees in real time think it's a major, why should Shifley get instigating? Because he does too. He thinks in the moment that's a major penalty and a foul. At real speed, the referees are calling that a major. So I don't think, like if Shifley was fighting a clean hit, that's different. But in real time, even the officials think that's a major. So I don't think that Shifley should be given an instigating and ejected from the game in that moment. But does it matter what happened before the instigator like the instigator is the instigator you started a fight but he did it

because he thought but no a player was delivering a dirty hit but elliot it doesn't matter it matters to me you can't tell me it doesn't matter i understand that jeff you cannot interfere with my truth okay this is my truth no i'm done now you preach but you okay but you cannot this is my truth and you cannot cannot say it doesn't mean anything this is one of my favorite sports moments this is when what your head thinks collides with what your heart feels and i'm with you like my Like my heart feels the same thing, but my head says it doesn't matter. You know, my head says it doesn't matter if it's a minor. Your head is stupid. Your head is stupid.

And my head is smart. You instigated the fight. You started the fight. You get the extra money. You don't have to like the rule. You don't have to love the rule. That's just the rule. Whether something happened that, you know, in your mind justified you going and starting that fight the thing about the

thing about the the instigator for me if you really want to get technical about it and if you want to do video review for like for that for that hit okay and you looked at it initially and at the end of the hit you see hags let me do the body position here, left elbow come up after he goes through the check. And you think to yourself, uh-oh, maybe that was the chicken wing and uh-oh, that's spicy and that's going to get him the five. And then you do the review and you see, okay, no, the shoulder is tucked in. It's just a really unfortunate play. Is it worthy of a penalty? Yes, two minutes, not a five. If you really want to review something,

Shifley and Haig drop their gloves at the same time. Shifley confronts Haig, that's true, but the gloves come off at the same time. Should there have been an instigator on? If you want to do, if you want to play them, let's do review. I have to say, you're not wrong about that in the sense that people have said that to me before. That if Shifley comes in where Haig can't defend himself or Shifley's got the gloves off and Haig is clearly taking off his gloves because Shifley's are already off. Yeah.

That's an instigator. I have to tell you, Jeff, there are people who agree with you on that. If the gloves go off at the same time, it shouldn't be an instigator. It's not an instigator. It's not. You know, I have to tell you, there are people out there who agree with you on this. My point is that I don't believe Shifley should get ejected from the game if at real speed, even the officials think it's a dirty play. Okay.

Because you know what, Jeff? Like that fight is happening because Shifley thinks that Hague has made a dirty play. And in real time, the officials agree with him. They agree. You're right. You're right. That's a dirty play. Why should Shifley get thrown out of a game in that situation? agree with him they agree you're right you're right that's a dirty play why should Scheifele

get thrown out of a game in that situation when they look at it and they say I mean you could even argue because it's still a minor that it is a penalty but my point is if you think in the moment that play is worthy of a major I don't think Scheifele should be ejected i don't i don't think any players should be ejected in that situation as a matter of fact maybe what i'm just saying is is if a player takes a major penalty whoever fights him shouldn't get an instigator because you're standing up for a guy who got fouled in a major way i understand that i just don't think from an official's point of view they'll say that anything is going to justify you starting a fight no matter what just happened yeah i don't i don't know about that i i don't know like i gotta tell you something if someone jumped you on the street yeah i keep

i keep walking i totally admit that listen i it's it's an old it's just listen it's just an old school way of thinking that you know okay someone high-sticked my buddy and I went and jumped him and punched him out. He's really the instigator, not me. He instigated the fight. He made me do this. No, it's still a choice that you make. Yeah, but you know what? I don't want to penalize a choice.

Okay, we're talking in circles. I think I've made my point very clear. If in the moment the referees think it's a five minute major, Shifley shouldn't go instigated. No instigated. Fill your boots. Do whatever you want at that point. Fill your boots. We made,

we made a mistake. We thought it was a five. So go for it. Do whatever you need to do. You're not going to get an instigator. Well, exactly. Like,

like I, I do think that I like teammates are supposed to stand up for each other. Right. They're supposed to stand up for each other right they are supposed to stand up for each other it's just such a super old old school way to think about it i'll tell you who agrees with me when this podcast drops you know where i'm gonna where i'm gonna be right and you're gonna be wrong in the province of manitoba oh yes I know that is true. I know that is true. Merrick hates Manitoba. He hates it. He has told me before it should be cut out of Canada with an X-Acto knife.

No, leave Thompson. I got a lot of friends in Thompson. I actually got a lot of friends in Winnipeg, too. Leave parts of Canada. No, you think you have friends in Winnipeg. That's over. Not after today. Not after today.

Not after today's pod. I like Mark Schaefeliafley though how about that he doesn't like you anymore because you want him thrown out of that game okay uh what do you look like five games oh geez five games kid for the jets well i i was gonna get to that i mean first of all i mean you know st louis won and calgary was also really mad about a whistle. But, you know, St. Louis won. I give the Knights a lot of credit this week, a lot of credit. They had a huge game against St. Louis. They were down their number one goalie.

They're down their number one defenseman. They won it. And that was a hard game. Logan Thompson, a huge penalty shot save save and then they win it at the other end of the ice basically right after you know they blew the one point in uh in nashville they should have won that game uh they lost but they still got another point and then they win that game in winnipeg a really tough place play. So they get five out of a possible six points when they're shorthanded.

And you know, too, if St. Louis wins that game, the pressure ratchets up on the Golden Knights. And you should never question the heart of a team that just won a championship and is the defending champions. But I think if anyone doubted what the Golden Knights were capable of and how much was still left there, they showed that this week. Very impressive week for them. You know, as for the Jets and the way they've played,

it was basically a 2-1 game, right? Like there were two empty net goals. It was a 2-1 one game it was a hard game you know I don't really know what to say there except that I don't look at that as like it's a bad loss because they've lost five in a row but I saw a team that played really hard against another good team and could have won that game like there have been some games in this stretch where they've like the washington game last sunday where i simply have said they've been good enough to win and they haven't won like do

you disagree with me like i thought they were no were right there. No, and you know, here's the thing. That's usually the indication. Again, this is like an old school way to think, but I've always believed this too. That's an indication that you're coming out of a slump. When you lose games, you should have won. And conversely, when you win games, you should have lost. Then that sometimes means that you're heading into one, right?

Remember we talked to McDavid and Dreisaitl around All-Star and we mentioned, you know, some of the games that during their streak they probably should have lost yeah but just you know surfed on skill and won and they they kind of said like oh yeah those things happen i've always you know subscribed to that theory that you're uh you're going into a slump when you win games you should lose yes you're coming out of one and when you lose games you should win that's how i feel about the jets like like that game last night they lost but that wasn't a 4-1 game that was a 2-1 game uh meanwhile um the national predators streak is over at 18 games it comes crumbling down at the hands of the arizona coyotes who double them up eight to four elliot at mullet arena hang on hang on

josh doan and the arizona coyotes take care of the nashville predators just thought i'd slide that in there scottsdale kid and all i mean it was due to happen right i just didn't think anyone expected it was going to be against arizona coyotes especially when jason zucker scored two quickies to make it 2-0. Yeah, classic trap game, I guess. Right in between a couple of major opponents. Look, when they scored to make it 7-4 with 3.20 left, was I the only one who thought they were going to score three more to tie it

just because of what happened against Vegas the other night? I guess they were due. They were due. Incredible streak. Incredible streak. Great streak. And Jets can breathe a little easier because they're still four points back of them. But what a run.

What a run for Nashville. And all good things must come to an end. What aren't they allowed to do now that they've been beaten 8-4? So you're suggesting that Brunette finds something to cancel another leisure activity? 9-2 against Dallas. Or Barry Trotz and Brunette. 8-4 against the Arizona Coyotes.

What do they take away now? What do the principals take away from their students? Oh, you thought you were going to see your kids tomorrow? No, that's not happening. Tomorrow you're skating, not a single puck hits the ice. See you at 8 a.m., gentlemen. That would be hilarious. I'm sorry.

You thought you were going to see your children? That's over. Florida Panthers. You mentioned the Islanders a couple of moments ago, and that's a huge win for the Islanders. They're now at 77 points, et cetera. We have an all-timer from Paul Maurice. Today is free quote effing day.

Take whatever you think I might say and use it. I won't bitch about it. Paul Maurice with an all-time quote after the Florida Panthers loss against the New York Islanders and that covers some ground because Paul's given out some great quotes over the years but today is free quote effing day take whatever you think I might say and use it first of all poets I have to say that I would take Paul Maurice up on that. If I was a media reporter for the Florida Panthers, I would say George Richards or Colby Guy or David Dwork.

It's harder for a guy like Jamison because it's NHL.com. And while I think they have really tried to work to give those guys more autonomy, it's still under the NHL umbrella. So you, it's harder for him to make up Paul Murray's quotes and get away with it. But if I was one of, one of the other reporters there that do a really nice job of covering the team, I would be making up these quotes. I would say, you know, the Florida Panthers lost to the New York Islanders on Thursday. And my first quote would be, I thought we absolutely stunk and I hate every single one of my players. And I would just put that in the quote. And then the next day, I would just be curious to see what the reaction would be. Here's a list of the players I believe to be overpaid.

That's right. Remember when I said that Sam Reinhardt had a bad attitude the other day and you guys thought I was kidding? I really meant it. That'd be awesome. An all-timer from Paul Maurice. I saw Randy Moeller and Ed Jovanovsky on our broadcast, and I said, I'm going to dress those guys on Saturday

because they're better than anyone else that I have. I would just be going with it. I look at our team, and I say, this is a squad that wouldn't check their hats. That's why we're bringing Jeff Chikrin out of retirement, Ed Jovanovsky as well, Randy Moeller to Elliott's point. Expect them in the lineup this weekend. End of conference.

And then I'd say, heck, Steve Goldstein and Doug Plagans may play too. That'd be a lot of fun thank you Paul for the all time I was having a conversation with someone about that they said do you think that that's going to lead to any discipline or any fine or anything like that and I said

I hope not now I think Maurice has been kind or any fine or anything like that? And I said, I hope not. I hope not. Now, I think Maurice has been kind of warned about some of his language before, but I'm like, that is so harmless. Like, that is so harmless. It's funny. You know, for example,

like, did you see what happened in the NBA on Wednesday night? You know, Kelly Oubre, he got upset at the end of the 76ers Clipper game and he went at the referees. And, you know, I'm not going to repeat what he said to them, but, you know, because sometimes I wonder what the Rodgers rules are about this stuff.

But people can go find it. And he apologized the next day and people were laughing about it all over social media. Like to me, we shouldn't be taking this stuff seriously. We should be laughing at it and writing made up stories. So I hope that that doesn't go anywhere. You know, the other thing I wanted to mention was there's a great game between the Rangers and the Avalanche, which the Rangers won in a shootout. and the avalanche which the rangers won excellent shootout shootout and um you know there's this so nathan mckinnon who has had a phenomenal season and as we as we sit here recording this podcast

he would be number one on my hard ballot right now his streak of home games with a point was snapped at 35, just shy of the NHL record. Now, I didn't realize this, but post-game, some of the reporters who cover the Avalanche had quotes from like Devon Taves saying, oh, I thought he got an assist on my goal. And a few of them reported that the Avalanche have asked the league to look at it. And I don't know where this will go, but it brought back some old memories of when I used to do baseball, Jeff. And so it was early in my career and I was working for the fan and like I was doing a lot of baseball reporting and my job was to just get quotes after the games. I wasn't on air as much as I was just there to get quotes.

games I wasn't on air as much as I was just there to get quotes and you know I remember I saw for the first time there was a time I used to sit behind the official scorer and there were a few of them there was one guy Neil McCarl there was another guy Doug Hobbs and I remember there was there was one time where and I think I'm getting this story right. I may get the names wrong, but I remember the play. Manny Ramirez was still playing for Cleveland and he had a chance to hit for the cycle in Toronto. And he hit a deep fly ball to right field and Sean Green was playing right field. right field and he he caught it but then he slammed into the fence and I think at that time was there were parts of it that were chain link so it hurts and he dropped the ball and I'm pretty sure it was Doug Hobbs that day and he called it an error and later in the game you know Ramirez and he ended up on third they called it a

three base error and he hit a home run in the game and I think he got a single like he basically he had a chance to get the cycle he either had the cycle minus the error or he could get the cycle and Mike Hargrove was the manager of Cleveland at the time and he called up the scorekeeper and I was right there I saw it and like I could hear Doug Hobbs end of the conversation and he was like no I'm not changing it and Mike Hargrove was saying my player can get the cycle that was a tough play you should change that to a triple and it was the first time I really saw this. And it used to happen in baseball all the time. Then I realized it was one of those things.

I saw Robbie Alomar go berserk after a game once because there was a ground ball up the middle. He made an incredible play to get to it. And he dropped it. And the player reached first base. And it was E4. They called him for an error. And in the postgame, Alomar went wild.

He complained to the reporters. He said, it's terrible I get an error on that play. I'm the only second baseman in baseball who can even get to that. And it's terrible I get an error on that play. I'm the only second baseman in baseball who can even get to that. And it's terrible. I get an error. I remember asking some of the more senior people that covered baseball. I said, because I think these happen in a really short span of each other. And I was like, how often does this happen? And they go all the time that you would not believe how often they pressure scorekeepers to change their calls. And so I'm curious to see if McKinnon gets the point for this. But I thought it was interesting how, like you know him, like he doesn't care.

He just wants to win the Stanley Cup. He doesn't care about anything else. But I am curious to see if the nhl does does review it and consider changing it at all you want a little historical perspective on assist sure you want a quick you want a quick story sure so this gives you a little peek into how exciting my life is okay um if you ever get a chance to either go to the hockey hall of fame or if you can reserve time to do any research at the um hall of fame resource center on the west end of the city um go look at old game sheets between like 19 crossed out and stuff like that

1921 no you know what's fascinating about it and i didn't realize this and it it this was only like it would have been like around 2005 i was at the hall of fame resource center i can't remember what i was researching, but I booked a number of hours to go through a few things. And I was looking at old game sheets. And on a lot of the old game sheets, this is before assists were consistently awarded. All the scorekeepers were encouraged to award assists.

And as someone at the Resource Center explained to me, because I asked this, I think, what's this note on the game sheet all about? And it occurred on a number of game sheets. I can you please make sure for as many goals as possible, you award I can't remember however many number of assists at one point, it was each goal had a potential for three assists. And I asked about it. And this person at the resource center said to me, well, in all honesty, it's more a piece of marketing than anything else. The NHL, you know, the more numbers you have beside players' names, it makes them look better. You know, if you have like, you know, two goals, okay, well, that's fine. You know, Joe Smith has two goals. But if Joe

Smith has two goals and 18 assists, then you put a 20 beside that person's name. And know, Joe Smith has two goals, but if Joe Smith has two goals and 18 assists, then you put a 20 beside that person's name. And all of a sudden they look like wonderful hockey players. It was a piece of marketing. It was a way to make their players look like they're doing something more substantial on the ice. And I would make the argument even more so that in the age of analytics, because there was a there was a a hue and cry around you know what is an assist like we all we need to know is who scored the goal that's the person who's doing the work i would make the argument that the first sort of analytic was assists because there was a time where people looked at that and said that stat is nonsense and

that's that tells us nothing. All we need to know is who scored the goal. But interesting, originally, Elliot, assists were there for marketing purposes. Interesting. They still are, I would like to argue. I think a lot of things are done for marketing reasons, but nonetheless, assists were one of the originals. So basically, we'll just say that Connor McDavid is going to be the fourth

player ever to have a hundred marketing opportunities in one season. Yes. And before we wrap it up, we, you mentioned his name briefly. We should mention Josh Stone, first Arizona player ever to have two goals in their debut. And I think the third player in franchise history going back to Winnipeg and Dale Howarchuk to have four points in their first three games. Shane Doan only had, I think, four points in his first two games.

Shane Doan, I think, only had three, which relegates him to the second best player in family history. But, you know, the Coyotes did a real nice job with this um they you know the the lap they did a great video of the gm bill armstrong uh making uh a gym bill armstrong making the call to doan that he was gonna play like look this has been a hard time for the Coyotes. I was actually talking about this with someone on Thursday. You know, you look at Matthews, 59 goals. You look at Nyes in Toronto. He's going to be a hell of a player for them.

And now you look at Doan. And now you look at Doan, it's like he was saying to me, it just shows you why Bettman fights with every last breath for Arizona. Because this market, like it's never been the fan's fault and it's never been the player's fault. Because if you take a look at like there's former players like Derek Morris Dallas Drake I think is a coach down there now like there are good former players who are coaching these kids now and they're turning out players like the they said that the fault of that organization has always been location and he said to me like josh stone is another example of a homegrown arizona kid that has a chance to make

a difference like nobody's like matthews matthews is you know a different breed but you look at nice you look at don't just another example of like they and they are turning out players and and he said to me and this is a a guy who works in the league he says this is why they should find a way to make it work because from a hockey development point of view you have to like what's coming out of there and it's not the players and the fans fault that this hasn't worked and furthermore let me add one more later to that too if it could ever sort itself out properly with a proper arena yes easily acceptable uh that is easily accessible acceptable works too i i have to say like that actually works there. Acceptable and accessible to fans

that it would be considering all the benefits you get, not just from playing there, but all the benefits outside of hockey as well. That should be a destination for hockey players. Yeah. Oh, and that's the other thing he said to me is that's the other thing the league knows. Like it's looking at everybody wants to play in Vegas.

Everybody wants to play in Florida. If they sorted that out, there would be a ton of players that wanted to play in Arizona. You are totally, totally right about this. And also don't look now, but the Dallas Stars are taking their run

at number one in the NHL, 101 points, right behind the first team to clinch a playoff berth in the NHL this year. The New York Rangers and Shisterkin was out of his mind in colorado they could have gone

they could have gone colorado could have gone through their entire roster and jared bednar could have taken a shot they could have signed merrick malik to a one-day contract to let him shoot nobody elliott was beating shisterkin in that shootout nobody he was phenomenal and by the way to the dallas stars they clinch so teams that have clinched already you mentioned the rangers with all the dallas stars into that mix as well they clinched on thursday as did the carolina hurricanes the florida panthers and even though they were idle the boston bruins i think actually in that game, the Avalanche should have sent two players.

Oh, I know who it was. Oh, I see what you mean. You know what they should have done? They should have dressed Joe Sackick for one game. You want to talk about a guy that's great on penalty shots? That's the guy. That's the guy they should have had in 1998 shoot, but he was injured.

That's what sunk Canada. Not Gretzky sitting on the bench. That's what sunk Canada. Nakareski sitting on the bench. Ooh, hot take time. All right. Montana's Thought Line is next. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, time now once again for the Montana's Thought Line. Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Elliot. Canada's home for barbecue. You do love the squealing guitar.

Thank you, Rick Turner, 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca. Jeff, this will never not be funny to me. Never. And we thank Rick Turner for all that. Thank you. 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca. 1-833-311-3232. We begin this edition of the Montana's Thought Line, once again, by a little bit of cleanup,

a little bit of janitorial work, Elliot. To our Gaston Gingras conversation last week, we read out an email from Matt. I had the audacity to question the authenticity of his claim about his son stopping a Gaston Gingras shot with his mask, which broke the puck, to which Matt follows up with this one. Hey, again, while I do find time to listen to your podcast,

I don't have so much free time that I can make up Gaston Gingras stories. In case the story seems suspect, I've attached a picture of Carter, that's his son, proudly holding the damaged puck signed by Gingras. They're not providing yes i know how dare i have a great day thanks for the pod and yes he sent along a picture of carter with uh the autograph puck from gaston jingra one final gaston gingra uh email people are now providing evidence when we doubt it yeah if if you you claim that Gaston Gingras broke your hand with a slap shot, we want the x-rays.

And I want the x-rays autographed by Gaston Gingras. Send them along, please. I did get one great tweet from a Mike Bauman who said, The Titanic wasn't sunk by an iceberg. It took a slap shot to the hull from Gaston Gingras. I like that. Cal in Vermont sends this one. One time in Montreal,

I heard there was a bank heist with many people inside. While waiting for police to show up, Gaston Gingras was walking home from practice and noticed the commotion. Gingras grabbed a can of soda out of the trash and took a rocket of a shot that broke through the bank's front glass

and caught the robber between the eyes, knocking him out until the Mounties. Oh, nice touch. The Mounties showed up. True story. Submits Cal in Vermont. Always appreciate the exaggeration about the slap shot of Gaston Gingras.

All right. Two more serious things, Elliot. I don't know where this is going, but I'm looking forward to the ride. More Gaston Gingras stories. Thank you. Blake, greetings Jeff, Elliot, and Dom. Longtime listener from Stratford, Ontario

and graduate of Jeff's favorite school, Western University. Yes. I was with you on Stratford. God bless the William Allman Arena. I would like to build up the submission to the last pod regarding Wayne Simmons and the one-day contract. Is there any provision in the CBA for bidding a player from receiving compensation on a one-day contract. Is there any provision in the CBA for bidding a player from receiving compensation on a one-day contract?

Could a team, say Tampa with Stamkos, offer a discounted contract extension with the understanding Stamkos will receive a one-day contract at the end of his career with a significant signing bonus? Elliot Friedman. One-day contracts are ceremonial. So the answer to the question is no. It's a great question, but the answer is no. They are purely ceremonial.

They don't go onto the cap. I mean, look, if you want to funnel money to Stamkos or Simmons for whatever reason, I'm sure they will gladly accept it. But it's not a cap thing. It's purely honorary and ceremonial. This one's a lot of fun. A little bit of historical knowledge for everybody here. Jason from Campbell River, home of the Rod Brindamore Arena. Hey, Jeff, Elliot, and Dom. I was watching a video by the hockey guy on YouTube today, and he cracked a joke about Patrick Waugh being fed up with his goaltending

and going in net to do it himself. Man, could we ever see Patrick doing that or what? This got me thinking. With Hall of Fame goalies working in managerial and coaching positions all over the league, is there anything from stopping team executives from serving as the e-bug in a game?

Has a situation like this ever happened? As a grizzled Canucks fan, nothing would bring me more joy than a 44-year-old Luongo storming down the tunnel WWE-style to defend his Panthers. Thanks for the thoughts and the awesome pod. You know where I thought he was going with that? As a Canucks fan, I thought he was going to say

75-year-old Jim Rutherford appearing in the playoffs. I thought he was going to say 75-year-old Jim Rutherford appearing in the playoffs. Or John Garrett coming out of the broadcast booth to don the pads. There's any number of choices you can make there, Elliot. Yes, yes, there are. The Canucks could have a very interesting playoff if all of this falls into place, or even one of these fall into place. Once upon a time, you can make the argument that the original e-bug. Well, you're going to talk about the most famous one.

Well, and that's the original e-bug, as I like to call him, Lester Patrick. Yes. So this is 1928, and it is the Rangers and the Montreal Maroons Stanley Cup final at the Montreal Forum. Laurence Chabot was the goaltender for the Rangers. Got hit with a Nil stewart backhand caught him in the left eye he races to the hospital obviously so the rangers asked to use a number of other goaltenders who were there um alex connell um ottawa senators net miter at the time was there but the maroons disagreed and wouldn't allow the Rangers to do it. Yes, I remember that was a big part of it.

Big part of it. So Lester Patrick, at 44, coach and general manager of the Rangers, went in. He faced 19 shots. He only allowed one goal. Frank Boucher scored in overtime. The Rangers won. They went on to win the series and the Stanley Cup. Their first Stanley Cup victory ever from the legend, along with his brother Frank, the man that we are all indebted to for a number of rules changes.

There's all Pacific Hockey League ushered into existence that still exists to this day. I think it's like 30 rules that still exist to this day from his old PCHL. 30 rules that still exist to this day from his old PCHL. Nonetheless, Lester Patrick Elliott, the original e-bug. Would there be anything, though, stopping, I don't know, Marty Berder, Roberto Luongo from donning the pads and saying, I will be the e-bug tonight? Well, the e-bug has to be set in advance, right?

Boo. Boo. It would be pretty funny if Vancouver knew that they were locked in Jim Rutherford submitted himself as the e-bug for a game at the end of this year yeah I'm the e-bug tonight yeah I'll be the e-bug

I'm Jim Rutherford I can do whatever I want yeah John Garrett I'm gonna have a hot dog I'm gonna have some ketchup and my goaltending equipment. I'm going to play. You know that happened to him in Quebec. Do you ever hear that story? Yes, you did talk about that.

Yes. He was backing up and he was eating a hot dog and he stuffed it in his goalie pads when he got ushered into duty. And during a fray in front of the net, the hot dog popped out. Atta boy, Cheech. Thanks for the question. Adam, gentlemen, the question from the last podcast concerning how the salary cap is calculated raised another question for me.

What mechanisms are in place to make the players whole given that teams are not obligated to spend to the cap? For argument's sake and to keep the math easy, if 10 teams spent only to $10 million below the cap ceiling, how would that $100 million not paid out in salaries be made up to the players? That's actually a good question. The way it is is that if everybody's well below the cap,

then basically it comes down to revenues, right? That's just the best way to put it. It comes down to revenues. It's not so much about cap spending. It comes down to revenue spending. The revenues are split. It's 50-50, but there are some costs that get taken out. But it's 50-50, and the players are supposed to get half50 and the players are supposed to get half and the league is

supposed to get half. And the reason there is an escrow is to protect against one side getting too much and then you have to go back and collect. That way you can distribute it at the end based on what the actual numbers are. So if all of these teams are spending well under the cap, but the revenues are high, the players are going to get more. It's going to be that simple. There have been situations before, and I will say this, one of the issues early in the cap, I can't remember how many years in it was but there was one year when a lot of players were going into lti i can't remember which year it was but i i wrote about it or i've talked about it before where the costs were very high in terms of salaries

and the more players were getting injured like basically even if it was not a lot of money but it just it kept on driving the costs up and the players were like i mean one player said to me he joked he says he didn't know a lot about the mechanism but he said i know that the more players play at this point in time it's worse for us so i don't it doesn't really come down to as much about um it all depends on the revenues and their relation to the costs so if the revenues are good and costs are down that's better for the players it gets made up by either getting money back or having less or less taken out at the end of the year that's the safest way to explain it uh jack and canora has a rules question elliot you'll like this one following up on tobias's

question this is from last podcast on a player not leaving the box when his time is served and we use michael pekka as the example um Jack submits, I played midget double A and on occasion when playing from behind, when taking a face off in our defensive zone, our team would withhold one player on the bench. So I guess his team would have four skaters and the team in the offensive position would have five. Upon puck drop, we would have our fifth player jump over the boards in hopes of a quick face

off win and chip up for a breakaway worked on a few occasions. However, the opponent's team would be up in arms is playing unnecessarily short, a legal play in the NHL. It was fun to try, but never penalized when refs noticed. Good work, Elliot and Dom. Oh, how dare you, Jack?

Jack, I really like you and I like Kenora even more for that. You know what the answer is, Elliot? I do not. The answer is you cannot do that. I kind of figured. Specifically in the defensive zone, you have to put the proper amount of players on the ice or the referee has a discretion to call a bench minor.

Now, the one thing that I do wonder about is if it was the offensive team in that zone if you're in the offensive zone and you choose to put out four instead of five considering you wouldn't have the advantage of jumping behind the defenders for a breakaway i wonder if the official would just say you want to play short-handed go for it there is no advantage to be clean there but in the from the defensive side of things in the defensive zone if you don't put the requisite amount of players out then you can be assessed a bench minor you know i i kind of i didn't know that it made sense about that because you often see you know if there's if there's a some sort of commotion or issue on a face-off the referees will go over the bench and say what are you doing here or get us a player out here. I do remember playing minor hockey back in house league.

You got really shamed if you forgot to go out on the ice when you were supposed to. Because, you know, when I started, it was the buzzer, right? And if you weren't ready to go out there when the buzzer went, either your coach yelled at you or the official did. Like, I remember there was one time I forgot and I got embarrassed in front of my teammates. So that only happened to me once. We'll end up on this one.

Jesper, the Danish goalie. Okay. Jesper, the Danish goalie. Hey, Jeff Elliott. Is this Frederick Anderson's burner account? It might be. Hey jeff elliott and the sound dominator wow the sound dominator yes uh jesper from denmark or is it jesper longtime listener of the pod and as a hockey geek i love when jeff gets historical oh my

i just listened to your pod, and the question about Jeff Skinner got me thinking about which player. Now, the Skinner question is, he's close to 1,000 games here, folks. He's never played in a playoff game. That's the context. So the question about Jeff Skinner got me thinking about which player has the most postseason games without winning a Stanley Cup. Let's go Ducks, Jesper, the Danish goaltender, adds.

This will be the last one. So do you have a stab at this one? Okay, I'm thinking. That's a great... First time's always the worst. Yeah, I know. Like, I know guys who played a lot of games, but they want like Chelios, Scott Stevens, Larry Robinson.

They all won cups, yo. Yeah. Oh, you know what? Like, I'll tell you this. You know, the two guys who jump into my head are, and I don't know if it's the right answer, but the two guys who jump into my head are Joe Thornton and Patrick Marlowe. Reverse order, but you got it right. Is it Marlowe 1, Thornton 2?

Correct. You got it. Patrick Marlowe, good for you. Marlowe 195. I am retiring from trivia. Joe Thornton 187. I'm going out on top. Here's the next one. you know who comes in at number three i never would have got this okay okay give me like never give me a clue give me

don't tell me give me a clue oh geez um him and glad thor i'm glad thornton and marlo won gold medals. At least that's something. You don't have to deal with that. Okay, so your clue is this player and his brother are still significant names in hockey. Is it Dale Hunter? It's Dale Hunter. Jeez, good for you. I retire again.

I came out of retirement and now I'm back into retirement. Holy smokes, Freach. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, Dale Hunter. Yeah. Or as the Uso announced at Montreal Forum. Feel good right now. Yeah, love him.

Love him. Patrick Marlowe, number one. Joe Thornton, number two. Dale Hunter, number three. You know what, Elliot? I was a good hint. I wouldn't have gotten it without that hint. Take the rest of the week off.

You nailed the top three. Good job. All right, fine. Never mind when Merrick goes historical on you. How about Friedman? Well done. Try the ribs. The Montana's Thought Line.

Montana's Barbecue and Bar. Try the ribs. It's catchy, eh? Top tunes. Canada's home for barbecue. 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca. 1-833-311-3232 the ways to get in wrapping up the pod

welcome back to the program 32 thoughts the podcast presented by the gmc sierra elevation elliot pump your tires very nice uh be nicer if you pump mine every now and then but that's fine elliot i understand who are you tim i was gonna say insert your 2011 stanley cup final jokes here but i kind of walked into that one uh a of things before I let everyone know who's playing on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday congratulations to the one the only Connor McDavid I know the accolades are many for Connor McDavid and now we'll add another one to it. Conor McDavid with 120 points for the third consecutive season. So he'll join Nikita Kucherov and Nathan McKinnon

with 120 points this season. And again, as we all know, didn't look great for the Oilers earlier this season. Didn't look great for Conor McDavid earlier this season. But to everybody who said, relax, the Oilers will be fine and McDavid will be fine. Good on you. And congratulations, Connor McDavid. Now, three seasons in a row with 120 points. Hockey Night in Canada, Saturday, Elliot, you already referenced the Buffalo Sabres hosting

the Toronto Maple Leafs and curious to see how many Sabres fans have sold their Leafs tickets for that one. Carolina and Montreal. It is Ottawa and Winnipeg. Your late game, the Los Angeles Kings facing off against the Calgary Flames. The boring Los Angeles Kings. Oh, now all of a sudden everyone's discovered that they're playing the 1-3-1. Why did this just become a thing this week? Is it because the door was piped off about it?

That's all that it was? Yes. And now everyone just sort of clued into like, oh yeah, they kind of... It's after the trade deadline. We need somebody to tell us what to talk about. And Zdorov came through. Thank you, Nikita Zdorov.

The boring Los Angeles Kings. Boring Jim Hiller. Who just happened to have one of the best first lines in the entire NHL. Boring. I hope it's our campaign. Quentin Byfield. No, nothing. You're still calling that one boring too?

Just boring. All right. Facing off against the Calgary Flames. Ottawa, Winnipeg, Carolina, Montreal, Toronto, and the Buffalo Sabres. And that is Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. All gets underway at 630 Eastern with Hockey Central and your host, Ron McLean. Any closing thought from you? Do you follow the OHL Cup at all? I do.

This one's thrilling. This is Oakville facing off against the Vaughn Kings. The Barry Colts getting knocked out. A lot of us thought that it was going to come down to the Barry Colts and the Vaughn Kings, one and two in the rankings pretty much all season long. But some fresh blood in there. Good on Oakville. Well, they're going to play.

The final is on Saturday. Saturday, yes. So basically, well, you should explain the OHL Cup to people who don't know. Okay, so this is for the U16s, and this is put together by the Ontario Hockey League. We used to carry it on Sportsnet Ontario. I loved being a part of it.

It's always been one of my favourite tournaments. So after all the OMHA and the Alliance and the GTHL playoffs are all done, they do what's called the OHL Cup. A lot of teams earn their way in and a lot of teams get invited in as well. It's

a wonderful tournament. It takes place in Scotiabank Pond in Toronto. it's packed with scouts and nervous parents and fans of just you know wonderful minor midget hockey and it's really turned into you know a a peek at the future of not just the ontario hockey league but also the nhl like you know pick anyone any prospect from Ontario chances are they played in the OHL Cup like the best team that I ever saw is actually a team that didn't win it and that was Connor McDavid's Toronto Marlborough's they

ended up losing to the Mississauga Rebels team led by Robbie Fabry and you'll go through like the history of the the OHL Cup like you'll go through all the teams and it's a it's a steady stream of like elite level high-end nhl players and you know you'll see the guys that played in this year's tournament showing up in the nhl in four or five years essentially what i'm getting at here marvelous tournament elite level hockey uh a lot of fun uh you get to see some crazy fans and some crazy parents who are very, very invested in their kids. Yes.

And you get to see some tremendous hockey. And best of luck to the two teams that made the finals, the team from Vaughn and the team from Oakville. Well, I noticed. It's a great tournament. It's a great tournament. It sounds like it. And I remember watching it when you worked on it.

But so as you mentioned, the final is going to be the Oakville Rangers against the Vaughn Kings. And for those of you who are not familiar with southwestern Ontario geography, Oakville is about 45 minutes west of Toronto. If you drive like Jeff, it's about two hours west of Toronto. If you drive like me, it's about 35 minutes. It's the home of Ron McLean. And Vaughn is just north of Toronto. And the Vaughn Kings and the MVP for the Vaughn Kings in the semifinal

with a goal was one Caleb Malhotra. There's another one of them. Oh, dude. There's another Malhotra. Hehotra so good he's awesome as well he's uh he's fantastic so that's manny's son in case you're wondering so congratulations to manny and caleb and also as we wrap up i would like to uh our our producer dom I know this is a big weekend for you, Dom. So happy Easter to you, Dom, and to everyone who celebrates.

Thank you. Perfect way to wrap up. Thanks for listening. Your next podcast comes to you, as usual, Monday morning. Have a great weekend.