32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Two Mistakes

Episode Date: July 1, 2021

The Canadiens outshoot the Lightning but don’t end up on top. Jeff and Elliotte break down game 2 (00:00), the play of the goaltenders, and how each goal had an interesting path to the back of the net. They also discuss the upcoming hire of Andre Tourigny as the new head coach in Arizona (16:20), where […]

I can barely hear you. You're really low. Uh, you're okay. Jeff, you're also really low. Hmm, I wonder what the problem is. Oh, now you're on it. Now you're better. Maybe the problem is you. Elliott Friedman, the Montreal Canadiens outshot the Tampa Bay Lightning 43-23, but at the end of the game, the buzzer went.

Tampa wins 3-1. They now claim a 2-0 series lead. Once again, can we say that Tampa out-habbed the Habs? Yes, because this was only the sixth game of 19 that Montreal outshot their opponent during the playoffs. And the majority of them were in the Winnipeg series, actually. But I thought the Canadians were great in this game. I thought it was the exact opposite of what we saw in game number one,

where they looked flat-footed and never in it. I thought, for the most part, they were the better team. And they made a couple of critical mistakes that ended up in their own net. And these were players who've been very good for them in the playoffs like stalwarts of their team but their mistakes ended up in their net and you know I have to tell you I think Vasilevsky he's probably a little annoyed about the like four GM's left them off the ballot yeah like if you have any pride, you're a little pissed off at that.

I can understand that. I want to get into a little bit of trophy talk if we have time a little bit later on. That's one of the things we'll get into, the Vesna conversation. But you're right about this game. Like, this is a really good start for Montreal. Right away, you saw a much-improved Nick Suzuki right at the beginning and all through the entire game, really.

And he scored the power play goal to tie it up at ones. This was a great effort by the Montreal Canadiens. The question for me now at the end of it is what is happening in that room? What is happening with those players? that room what is happening with those players i always wonder what happens when you dominate a team like that and still come out on the losing end of things and now you're down to nothing is there a sense like it's going to go one of two ways one way is guys we had that game that's just hockey that's just luck that's just bounces that happened. That's a hot goalie, right? We've had a hot goalie before and won games we shouldn't have. Let's take our medicine. Or do you

say, man, we came back with everything and still it wasn't enough. That to me is why game three is so fascinating. Which Habs team do we have now? What do you you think I can't see them falling apart Jeff after everything they've been through they were down 3-1 to Toronto they were on the ropes you know they lost early against Vegas I just think they're too mature and they've been through too much and they've got too many guys who've seen the ups and downs this feels different to me than any of the previous deficits they've been in. This Tampa team is better than anyone else that they've played, which makes sense since we're in the Stanley Cup final. This is a much higher hole to climb out of than anything they've faced.

But I still don't see the Montreal Canadiens falling apart as a group. They're not here without Sherrod. They're not here without Edmondson. I don't see it. I don't see them allowing themselves to fall apart. You know, I was on Toronto Radio on the fan on Wednesday morning and was asked about the Alex Killorn issue.

At that point, we didn't know whether he was going to be in or out and was asked about the Alex Killorn issue. At that point, we didn't know whether he was going to be in or out and was asked what it could mean. And the only thing I can think of is, you know, that's not going to break the spine of the Tampa Bay Lightning, obviously, but it's one less nasty player to have to deal with. Did you see anything in this Tampa team that led you to believe that not having Alex Killorn was going to be significant for Tampa? No, I just think they're too good. I mean,

Killorn's a huge part of their group on and off the ice. He's a really good player who doesn't get credit for how good he is. But I thought Johnson played really well. Now, look, if you lose him for the rest of the series or whatever it is, it's a loss. Don't get me wrong, but I think they can overcome that. And listen, you know what the thing about Tampa is, is players, we've talked about what they've done in Sy Syracuse before players come in and out of their lineup. And it's like an Olympic diver, no ripple, nothing. Like you look at the way Matthew Joseph comes into the lineup.

Now, Kalorin is out. Here comes Matthew Joseph. You mentioned that Tyler Johnson jumps up on that line with, uh, with Sorelli and Stamkos. But they didn't miss a beat. And Matthew Joseph fits right in. I was happy for him. So was I. Laval guy. You know how meaningful this is.

I remember in 2004, on their run to the Cup, their second round that year was against Montreal. And I did that series for Hockey Night in Canada and I just remember LeCavalier and San Luis by the way Vincent LeCavalier yeah does he drink from the fountain of youth he doesn't he doesn't look like he's aged at all no I know he looks great anyway you know I just remember how those guys felt going to Montreal and playing there and how excited they were I could only imagine how much that meant to Joseph tonight to get into that game against those guys.

And we'll see this group when they go back to play in Montreal for games three and four, they're going to be so riled. That's the toughest thing for Montreal to me in this series is that you think you're getting that momentum for game three it's the first game at home your fans are going to be crazy even though i mean there's there's 3 500 of them and there's 5 million of them outside whatever that is but yeah you know you think you're getting your all your riled up fans you're going to be so excited to play at home but yeah it seems like half the lightning are going to be playing at home too. So they're going to be riled up.

Yeah, that's a good point. And you look at this game, and one of the interesting things about it was every goal was, this is going to sound bizarre because maybe all goals are like this, but it really stood out to me how every single goal was very distinct. Like Sorelli's goal, you can look at it and just say, just the floater on net that got through. Tyler Johnson stepping back in the right circle. Banks at center point, Sorelli.

Shoot, score! Sorelli! You gotta shoot to score. I don't know if that was tipped on the way in, but it finds its way to the back of the net. One of the lightning with 13.20 left in the second. Suzuki's had a story with it. That was after Sergeyev on Arturi Lekanen.

It'll come back to Suzuki. He's got a good bounce score. Swept by Perry, but it looks like it's Nick Suzuki who's tied it on the power play. So here on the win, watch the adjustment that tampa does board goes right after coffield takes him away that means perry in front i'm not even sure perry touched it it's another one that just filters its way through two swings at it mcdonough was trying to get it perry was as well look at the reaction of vasilevsky looking up and around the traffic in front, and he just misses this one five hole. I said about the importance of...

Right, there's a floater that goes in, power play goal. Blake Coleman with, you know, at 19.59, the diving play. Good roll, carries across the blind, open right circle. Pass in front, score! What a job. What a goal by Blake Coleman! And it counts! .3 seconds, David.

Three-tenths of a second on the clock! And it's 2-1 Lightning! On the Barkley-Goodrow pass. Just a gorgeous, gorgeous goal. And then Andre Palat has the tap-in. Edmondson behind the watcher on net. A pass picked off Palat. Score!

Andre Palat! He deflected that in! An incredible goal! It's 3-1 landing with 4.18 left. You talked about a giveaway. You know, banks it off Carey Price after Joel Edmondson doesn't, you know, make that back pass harder to try to get it to Jeff Petrie. And the puck just finds its way on Palat's stick

and Carey Price can't get over fast enough. Goals are always a story. It just seemed as if there were four distinct ones in this game. I know the obvious answer is the Coleman goal because of A, how spectacular it was, and B, not only the nature of how it was scored but 1959 right before you're going into the room was that the one for you because i kind of looked at the plat goal and said okay now it's done well of course because it's three one with what four

minutes left right yeah that's why i look to chase tampa it's so hard i gotta tell you a fine story he called a backbreaker so that was my first year at hockey night oh 304 and i think it was game one i think if i remember and you'll all tweeted me if i'm wrong about this but game one tampa blew them out in tampa it's almost exactly the same thing now game two was a closer game it was like four nothing but0, but it was 1-1 late. And if I'm not mistaken, I think Tampa scored a late goal in the second period that really changed the complexion of the game. And I interviewed Steve Bajan after the game, and I said,

was that goal the ball buster? I called it on air goal the ball buster? I called it on air the ball buster. And the next day they had CRTC complaints about it. And Joel Darling, the executive producer, calls me up and says, maybe don't use that phrase next time.

By the way, for our American listeners, CRTC is the Canadian equivalent of the FCC, just so you have an idea of what Elliot's talking about. Okay, final thought on this game before I move on and get into the podcast and some news and notes around the NHL.

Final thought heading into Game 3. Can I tell you about a conversation I had with Amal today? I actually forgot. I meant to lead the podcast with this. I've got to tell you about a conversation I had with Amal today. Well, first of all, let me answer your question. So, here's my

thing after two games, okay? Jeff? Yeah? I have a conspite vote. I'm flattered to be given a conspite vote. I was going into this series thinking if it was close, Carey Price is getting my vote no matter what. If it's win or close, Carey Price is getting my vote no matter what.

If it's win or lose, Carey Price gets my vote no matter what. Now here I'm thinking after game two. How close is close? Wednesday night felt close. Monday night did not feel close. Right. And at the end of it,

you have right now carrie price surrendering eight goals in two games i think monday night i'm writing that one off it can happen even the best goalies have games like that but that's what i'm thinking now i was thinking going into the final and i never say my vote is done because something can happen in the final i can change it i'm starting to ask myself that question. Like, let's just say for argument's sake, if Tampa Bay sweeps the series, does that mean Carey Price can't win the consmith? See, I was going to go at it with, are you starting to get that soap and warm water feeling about Andre Vasilevsky with the consmith? You know, I got to tell you, I don't know if I would go with Vasilevsky with the consmith. I gotta tell you, I don't know

if I would go with Vasilevsky. He's had some weird games in this playoff. He has, but there's always a premium placed on the Stanley Cup final. I'm thinking Point Kucharov. Yeah, I can see that. They're my two top Tampa guys. We'll see.

I voted for Hedman last year. Hedman was my guy last year. If it's's a sweep it's going to be tough to it's going to be unless it's like two one nothing games and carry price stops 40 shots a night in a losing effort then I think you can make the case

but if it's a sweep that's going to be if I had a vote it would be a tough one to justify because I'm like you going into the Stanley Cup final if I had a vote, it would be a tough one to justify. Because I'm like you, going into the Stanley Cup final, if I had a consummate vote going into it, it's Carey Price for me all the way. And I don't think I'm in the minority. Like I said, I keep an open mind,

but I was making a case for myself, win or lose, I think it's Price. Now I'm two games in, I'm looking, again, it's not over, but I'm thinking like okay if it gets lopsided yeah what's my call here Dominic Ducharme is gonna be playing this part of the podcast then he'll get this pretentious quote as the late great Frank Zappa once said the the mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's open.

Your conversation with Amal. Yeah, so I wanted to go on a conversation with Amal today. So, you know, as you know, I'm traveling now. I'm going on the road for games three to seven. Me and Dave Amber,

the rest of the studio is going to Montreal for three, four, and six, but back in Toronto for the Tampa games. Anyway, so to do the podcast on the road, I need, four, and six, but back in Toronto for the Tampa games. Anyway, so to do the podcast on the road, I need, with my new laptop, I need an adapter. So Amal says, don't you worry, I'm going to bring you an adapter that you can plug the recorder into your laptop with. Okay. And then I thought this morning, only that but I need a slot to plug in the SD card

so I can feed the audio I use and I hadn't mentioned that to him earlier Jeff no word of a lie I call him up and I say Amal I forgot to mention this thing too and you know what he says to me he says elliot as long as we've known each other by now did you not realize that i'm always two steps ahead of you i'm like what he goes i am always two steps ahead of you i know you need that i've never felt so insulted amal no producer has ever talked down to me like that i gotta tell you now elliot i don't want to sound condescending oh do you know what condescending means actually i'll tell you what i've figured out who amal is it's taken me a while but for this podcast i've had the same experience with technology and he just like produces it out of his hip pocket.

Oh, maybe you need one of these, like a magician. I'm waiting for him to start pulling doves out of his sleeve whenever he comes over to help me with my technology. I figured out who he is. He is our Winston Wolf. He is the fixer. We have a problem. He can fix it. No problem.

Just get him a cup of coffee, and everything will be fine with that we'll kick it off welcome to 31 thoughts the podcast presented by the gmc sierra at4 Okay, welcome once again to another CarCast. PatioCast is in the rearview mirror. We are full CarCast speed ahead. And we'll see what happens after games three and four. Could be hotel room cast. Could be Montreal patio cast. Could be Montreal patio cast. We don't even know.

But right now, the car cast continues. I want to get to Duncan Keith. But before we get there, since even on the last podcast, we talked about the Arizona Coyotes coaching search. It seems very much as if it'll be Andre Tournier who lands as the new bench boss of the Coyotes. What do you hear? What do you know? Well, I'm going to flip this one back on you because you had some really good intel on this one.

So why don't I go with you? What do you hear? What do you know? So recently, over the past few days, I heard that Andre Tournier was the favorite to get the job, interviewed very favorably, and at some point this week, or it may have been the weekend, had a meeting with Arizona Coyotes ownership and it went quite well. And from people that I talked to, it seemed as if that's the way that this thing was heading. And it looks as if this is the way things are going to end up. Now, most recently, the head coach of the Ottawa 67s of the OHL, as we mentioned on the last podcast, has done some great work with young athletes both in the QMJHL and the OHL

to say nothing of the U-20 national team for Team Canada. So Arizona is going to go young. It would make some sense to have a coach who's A, ready for the NHL now. I don't know if it's true or not but i would imagine some people would have been would have called to ask about assistant roles for tourney and i don't think he's interested and be someone who can coach young kids and coach them quite effectively so he checks those two boxes the one thing i'm curious about is someone said to me, don't be surprised if Mario Duhamel goes along with him to Arizona. So I guess we'll find out as early as Thursday if indeed that one is true. But there you have it.

Andre Tourny, next head coach, Arizona Coyotes. Now, do you have an idea what they'll do, World Juniors? I do not. That's the next follow-up that I think we all have to do and that we all have to make. What do you make of the move though? Well, I thought it would be someone young and it would be someone new. I thought it would be a first-time guy. You know, the one thing that I've heard is maybe the number was a little bit higher than we thought it was going to be.

maybe the number was a little bit higher than we thought it was going to be. I'm very curious to see what the actual salary number is, because you and I were hearing maybe a bigger number than we thought. Again, this is just from what I heard, was somewhere around a million dollars, just slightly over. I think people thought Arizona was going to go lower than that, so I'm curious to see that. Look, you know him. he's got a good reputation

he's been around the nhl before he's been around kids before he was going to get a shot there was no question about that he was going to get a shot i'm interested in seeing this one you know who's a good person to talk to about uh about tourney who watched a ton of his practices and every time i would do ice surfing with them he would rave about these ottawa 67s practices is jason york york yorkie is one of the guys he would always come by he goes and then they did this drill and this is how he described it and this is how he got it through to the kids and this is what they did he's i mean mind you it's easier to do when you have arguably the best team in the entire CHL. So you have a lot of talent to work with.

But he said the practices that he put these kids through were spectacular and like revolutionary stuff, like how to think, how to work, game situation, all of it. I remember that's when I first tuned in, like, you know, maybe this guy is the sort of next one to come out of the CHL. Listen to Yorkie. Listen to Yorkie. Listen to Yorkie talk about Andre Tournier. Two things. One player I texted said he was excited by that. He thought that from what he heard about Tournier he was excited by it. And Yorkie

actually texted me tonight to say he really liked my hair. I got a lot of people texting me about your hair. I don't know if you know this but in Canada, everybody texts their buddies about your hair. I didn't know that. You know that. We got a lot of texts and tweets tonight about

me and BX are roasting each other about who looks worse. That's true. I know I might be in the minority, but I love the feathers, man. I know you want to get a cut. I understand all that. No, I'm keeping it for the rest of the playoffs. Well, feathers, man. I hope you keep... I know you want to get a cut. I understand all that. No, no. I'm keeping it for the rest of the playoffs.

Okay. Well, that's good. I hope you keep going with it, though. I love that look. No, Steph is starting to get annoying. I know. I know. I'm going to tell you, when I drive, it is annoying.

No, that's where you got to get a convertible. You want a convertible with those feathers, Freed? Seriously, bud. Tough. Honestly. Tough with a convertible with a nine-year-old. I get it, but man, you would look like Andy Travis from WKRP with

those feathers just blown in the wind. Freed? No, it's not Andy Travis. He had the straight hair. It's Dr. Johnny Fever. No, Fever's hair was sort of all over the place. I guess yours is to a certain extent, but you have the nice layers to yours, though. Alright, a couple of other things here.

Duncan Keith. That's a name that's very much out there. Tonight, you reported on Hockey Night that it is Seattle or a Western-based team. But make no mistake about it. And we've all heard the talk. Duncan Keith is going somewhere. Yes. So what I'm hearing is that obviously Blackhawks fans know that Keith has a young son who is in the Penticton area. And, you know, I think Chicago is looking at a Seth Jones or a Dougie Hamilton.

I think that's been reported. They're interested in that kind of thing. And I just think Keith and the Blackhawks have worked together. Look, he's a Hall of Famer. He's a franchise legend. He's going to have his number retired. If you're going to do this, you have to do right by him. And the Blackhawks are prepared to do right by him.

You know, I think it's Seattle or one of those teams. And the reason I think I found out about it is because there is a chance it could happen very soon. I believe there are a couple of teams working pretty hard at it. To me, I think it's Vancouver is unlikely. So that takes one down. I do think Seattle's interested, but I also think there's at least one more. So we'll see where this goes. But it sounded like it was really gaining traction.

And the Blackhawks know they have to do right by Keith. And I think what this could potentially allow them to do is open up some space to chase one of the big boys on D. So just so we're clear on this one, this would be something led by Duncan Keith, who would say, look, man, I helped us through our glory time here, and I came in at a discount that allowed us to do things and probably won us at least another Stanley Cup. Which he was the conspire trophy winner for. Yeah, because I was paid well under market value. So do me a solid, essentially.

I think that's what it is. And I think also the Blackhawks are at a time, I don't know how willing they would have been to do it, and I'm just saying I don't know. I don't know yes or no. I don't know how willing they would have been to do it some time ago. I think they're more willing to do it now.

I think this is a mutual thing that they're both willing to do right now. I think this is a mutual thing that they're both willing to do right now. Hello? Oh yeah, that's the get home one, guys. I'm good now. Okay. Oh yeah, that's the get home one, guys. I'm good now. Okay, I'll start around the NHL. A couple of things that we didn't get to because of how the last podcast was timed. What do you make of Don Granato and the Buffalo head coaching job?

I really thought the most likely outcome from the beginning was Granado was going to get the job. I don't know how far they really went down with Talkett. There were definitely some conversations with him. I know at least one person who thought that Talkett was going to get the job. Like a lot was made about Buffalo's run after the Ralph Kruger dismissal and how Granado came in and things took a turn and they strung some wins together. And it was more of an air of positivity around the organization. That's not going to be the team that Don Granado has next season.

Like we've talked plenty about Eichel. We've talked about Reinhardt. We've talked about Ristolainen and there are probably others as well. There's no way they're coming back with anything resembling, outside of some younger players, this same Buffalo Sabres team that Granado had at least a modicum of success with, correct? And you know what? I think it makes a lot of sense to go with Granado because of the way they finished. Those players seemed to really like playing for him. They thrived under him a little bit. There's no question about that.

I think the other thing too is, is that, and we talked about this. I love the way he just talked about the organization at the end of the season. At a time when it was so, so negative, he talked very positively about it. And I liked that. I thought it sent the right message. You know, someday I'm going to be very curious to try to find out who all Buffalo talked to. Like I said, I thought the most likely outcome was he was going to be the guy. They definitely flirted with talking a bit.

But at the end of the day, I really thought it was most likely to be Granado. Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Edmonton. It is an eight-year contract, $5 million a year is the AAV. Do we expect to see, well, first of all, before I get to what this means for the marketplace, what do you make of this deal for the Edmonton Oilers? And did you think all along he was going to re-sign Edmonton? I think he wanted to. So we've talked about this. Something happened early in the season here or in the off season where they thought they were going to have a deal with him and it fell apart in the last minutes. And this was a really hard negotiation.

And there were times that it looked like it wasn't going to work. And I think, you know, everybody here deserves credit because at the end of the day, Nugent Hopkins made it very clear he wanted to play his whole career in Edmonton. You know, if he lasts this whole contract and there's certainly good faith going in that he will, it's going to be 18 years.

And, you know, I think that's what he wanted. He didn't want to go anywhere else. And so everybody really busted to make this happen and he gets more term the orders get a better number you know i had a couple people say to me like that's from other teams who like to like just shiv each other's deals and they're like that's a really good number like that's a good number for a player like Nugent Hopkins. The other thing too, Jeff, is I'm really curious to see how many eight year deals there's going to be.

Okay. So I want to get to that because I wonder now with the flat cap, et cetera, how many players are taking less money, but more term because of it. And that ends up being the compromise. Like, I think Jones could get eight and we'll see about Hamilton, but I don't think there's going to be a lot of eights. You know what I actually meant to say to you earlier? Someone texted me during the game tonight, and he said that the two most sought-after free agents this season

might be Coleman and Goodrow. Well, because everyone's chasing what is successful. Yeah, but also they're really impactful players, right? Absolutely they're impactful players, right? Absolutely. They're impactful players and their, their prices. Listen, after that Coleman goal,

what do you think the price now for Blake Coleman is going to be like every single game that goes by, like they win another Stanley cup. I think that there's a few players off Tampa whose value is going to skyrocket if they can, if they can do this again. And we just talked about, you know, Alex Corn a second ago, and they're going to have to

make some painful decisions again. I don't expect, you know, a phantom Anthony Sorelli knee injury to keep him out for the entire season, only to see him emerge for the playoffs. No, I like our plan that they pick players every year to sit out the season. Listen, I would love, trust me, I would love nothing more than that. I love a real heel. I love a real villain in any sports league. I love it.

Embrace it, NHL. It's okay not to be adored by everybody, but I just don't think it's going to happen. But there's going to be some guys, like Alex Killorn is going to be one of those guys, and he has been sought after before. And we just mentioned the Buffalo Sabres. They were hot on Alex Killorn not too long ago, a couple of years ago.

Remember around draft time? Was it two years ago, free draw on draft time? All we kept hearing is, oh yeah, Alex Killorn to Buffalo. Buffalo's going to grab Alex Killorn here. I think there's a few of those guys. Now, Killorn's not a free agent. That's a trade. But Tampa's going to be up against it again.

Like all those things we thought Julian Breezeugh was going to have to pretzel himself around in the off season. Those haven't gone away. Those haven't gone away at all. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if Goodrow and Coleman are two of the more intriguing free agents out there. A couple of other things

maybe some smaller moves here but Columbus rounding out their bench uh sylvan lefebvre joins most recently in ahl san diego alex tongay uh most recently with the iowa wild as an assistant coach is now the assistant coach of the detroit red wings anything raise your eyebrow here well i just know that tongay is a guy who really wanted to, he really wanted, I remember just talking to him a few years ago about, he was talking about what his path was going to be. And I think he kind of like asked about like what the proper path that I'd seen from a lot of people, like what, how does

it generally go? And we kind of talked about, you know, how a lot of successful coaches and where they started and how they got there. Like he was very interested in that kind of thing. And I don't know why I was asking me, there's a lot more smart people to ask than I am, but he did ask. And, you know, one of the things that, you know, I talked, I joked about kind of with them is that is Alex, I don't know how many guys who made, you know, what you made are going to be willing to start from the bottom and go from there. And he just said, I don't care. Like, that's what I'm going to do. And the other thing he asked me about too was, I might be butchering this story too,

but I think he kind of took a break for a little bit from coaching or something else he was doing. And he asked me about TV and he said, like, do you think TV would help me? I thought it would because A, I think he's really smart. And B, TV improves your communication because you have to speak in quicker bursts. You have to be able to talk to the pictures sometimes and you have to be able to communicate and make sense. And I think he felt that doing that

and he worked for NHL network was something that was very helpful for him. I I've always liked dealing with Alex Tang. He always taught me something whenever I spoke to him. He was a really interesting player to me. And there's one thing that stands out about Alex Tang, gay more than anything else from his career. And that is, now I don't know what a normal career shooting percentage is for a player

like him, but I'm willing to bet it's somewhere between, what would you say for age nine and 11%? Something like that. Do you know what his career shooting percentage was? 20? 18.6. Wow. 20?

18.6. Wow. But the thing here is, and I'm curious, what his philosophy on it is now. So I'd love to get him on the podcast to ask him goofy, geeky things like this. He would not shoot unless it was the absolute perfect shot. Like he would not let go of the pocket. You know the idea of just volume shooting,

just throw it on net. That was not Tangay. Tangay was not going to shoot unless it was perfect. If I remember correctly, he scored a huge goal in game seven, 2001. And I think someone I remember in the post game was like screaming. I can't believe you actually shot it.

He didn't do it as often as I think coaches would have wanted him to but when he did he made them count let's finish up by talking about the the trophies i wasn't surprised but i kind of was just because it's such a goofy thing to see conor mcdavid gets all the first place votes second time ever yeah nobody tried to hipster this one it's funny because you know i was surprised you know i was surprised and i'll tell you why i was surprised because the north division this year was so disrespected by a lot of people as a joke division yeah you know i think montreal has proved it was as legitimate as any other one i thought somebody would not vote for him because people said the North was a joke.

So I was honestly surprised he got all of them. But what a performance. Oh, yeah. What a performance by McDavid. I know I talked a lot about, you know, the definition of the trophy and how you see Saros. And you said, yeah, there's going to be some votes for Saros. And sure enough, a couple of third, fourth,

and fifth places popped up for you. He be some votes for Saros. And sure enough, a couple of third, fourth, and fifth places popped up for UC Saros. He got shafted. Saros got shafted. You know what? The problem with Saros was not enough people spoke about UC Saros, but by definition of the Hart Trophy, you could have included him. Maybe not in the McDavid category,

whose season was just ridiculous. But for a lot of those players in that top mix, considering what UC Soros did for the Nashville Predators. Oh, he got shafted. Like, we were blowing up the whole team. Everybody was. You know, it's so funny. Like, the GMs think our picks are terrible.

And some of them, sometimes we do get the rot. Like, four of them didn't put vasilevsky on their on the vesna ballot yeah you know these things happen well brian burke always makes the point right brian always says you know goaltenders of the position we miss on the most why do we vote for the vesna it makes no sense were any of the trophies like you thought really off i thought adam fox had a hell of a year. I'm just not used to seeing someone, A, in his second year win a North trophy, or B, and I don't have a problem with it, I'm just not used to seeing it,

someone from a non-playoff team win a significant trophy. It's the first time ever, right? Yeah. And I voted Fox first. And I really struggled with it. And at the end of the day, like the tough thing about my car was, whoa, oh, there's like a rabbit running by me. I thought it was a raccoon.

Oh, rabbit. Hey, rabbit. Come on up to where I live. We get coyotes every night. Yeah. I'm not going near any of those. All right. I thought this one was really tough you know i mean if you

if you need one defenseman to win the game you're taking headman it wasn't a typical headman year my ballot i really struggled with the norris this year was my toughest one i went fox i went wieger two i went headman three hamilton four, and Makar five. And, you know, the, the thing about Makar is, you know, he missed a lot of games. That was the tough one for me. I wouldn't be surprised if he wins it next year. What did you think of Marc-Andre Fleury with the Vesna, if you want to rip on some GMs?

I didn't have a problem with it. Like to me, Vasilevsky is the best goalie in the league. Same deal. If I'm picking one goalie to win a game, it's Vasilevsky. As great as Price has been in these playoffs, I just don't understand how four guys could leave him

off the ballot. You keep coming back to that. But the thing is, I'm sure some of those GMs think my picks are garbage. It's fine, right? Well, listen. We saw Vasilevsky get votes for the Hart Trophy, like above UC Saros.

It's a weird thing. See, I would have put UC Saros ahead of Andre Vasilevsky for the Hart Trophy. This is one of those weird seasons where a goaltender could have been high on your Hart Trophy ballot, but not win the Vesna.

I don't know that UC Saros was the best goaltender, but he was the most valuable player to that team and in the conversation for most valuable player in the league. It's just one of those interesting years. It's funny you say this because one of the arguments I used to have was all-star team versus heart trophy. So I have a rule that for the Norris, because we vote for three all-star teams, my top five D,

I ranked them one to five for the all-star teams and then I figured out who I was going to pick sixth. The top three in my Hart ballot were McDavid, Matthews, and Crosby. So that means they go one, two, three center on my all-star team. But there's other people who don't do that. Like for example, Max Boltman, who covers the Red Williams for the athletic, he actually talked about, I, someone must've called him out on it

or said something about him to it. And he said, no, I see the heart trophy voting and the all-star voting as different. Now I don't do that, but I know other people who do. And I think that's one of the most, like Max is not alone in that. I think there's a few voters who do it that way. And, uh, I just think it's really fascinating because it's the same thing you talk. I have a rule. If I pick, I take my five heart trophy people and I put them at the top of their all-star teams unless they're all the same position that I just ranked them one two three or something right but I know I'm not

I know that there's other guys who think that way the way that you do this is for a bigger conversation because I do want to have eventually one of these days the conversation of like you look at the Norris for example are you voting for the what who you consider to be the best defenseman of the NHL or the defenseman that had the best season? Because not everybody votes the same way. Essentially what I'm getting at here, Elliot, is I think there needs to be a redefinition of the trophies.

I think they are too incredibly vague, which maybe is a good thing because it leads to discussion and conversation like this. And people hating us for our picks. And people hating us for our picks. And people hating us for our picks. It's true. It does lead to conversation. It's that Alfred Hitchcock used to call them, I think it was frozen dinner moments.

He would deliberately put something in a movie that would feel and appear wrong. Or if it was like a rip in the script where something didn't make sense but it made you think about the movie until you got home and opened up your freezer to have a frozen dinner when you got back and it forced you to think about the movie all the way home maybe this is like an alfred hitchcock frozen dinner moment i don't know oh well you know what the title of this podcast is going to be? So this is a podcast where Jeff has quoted Frank Zappa and Alfred Hitchcock.

Yeah, man. The title of this podcast is Everybody Over 100 is Going to Love This Podcast. And then as Orson Welles once opined, okay, everybody, you're off the hook. I was speaking to my pet Brontosaurus, and he told me. Brontosaurus.

Yeah, let's get the Flintstone references in here. All right, taking us out from Aklovik Northwest Territories, a legendary indigenous folk rocker, Willie Thrasher. Now, during an interview with the Georgia Straight, Thrasher recalls when his approach to music changed. Quote, I remember one night when the Cordells, his band at the time, were playing a show. We were sitting down during our 15-minute break and then an old man came out of nowhere. I didn't know who he was or where he came from,

but he sat down at our table and then he asked us, why don't you write some Inuit music? Native music. None of us knew about Inuit music? Native music. None of us knew about Inuit music at the time because we were raised up through residential schools. But this old man that I'd never met before started giving us encouragement to write music that way. So I got very curious. And then I started writing stories and music about our culture. From his 1981 album Spirit Child, which was reissued in 2015, here's the title track by Willie Thrasher on 31 Thoughts, the podcast. Spirit child, can I go with you? In the end, let's go till the end of life In the end, let's go till the end it's road to the end it's life

Hey-ya-ga, ya-ga, ya-ga Hey-ya-ga, ya-ga, ya-ga