32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Weekend Update

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

Chicago fires head coach Jeremy Colliton and assistant coaches Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank. Jeff and Elliotte discuss the promotion of Rockford head coach Derek King (2:10), the level of freedom interim GM Kyle Davidson has within the organization, and if this is a lost season for the Blackhawks. They also touch on Jack Eichel’s arrival in Las Vegas (17:00), Ottawa recalling Erik Brannstrom from Belleville (17:45), the Maple Leafs finding their groove (25:00), St. Louis requesting (and being denied) COVID-19 cap relief, and the guys go through some listener emails. PLUS, THE THOUGHT LINE IS HERE! Call toll-free: 1-833-311-3232 Call the podcast and leave your thoughts, comments and questions. Music Outro: JP Maurice – Runaway Listen to JP’s latest album “Press Makes Diamonds” here This podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Audio Credits: 630 CHED, Sportsnet and WGN Radio 720. 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

You're probably a Boston cream kind of guy. Hey, I have a question for you. I'm supposed to do the sponsor tag right now, but go ahead. The thing is, is that we're doing this podcast at 9 p.m. on Sunday night and Yellowstone just dropped, season four. Yeah, I know. Do you think I can do this podcast while watching it at the same time? Well, let me tell you.

We're going to read some emails later on finally okay and not just emails but comments so not just questions but comments okay and this winks at something that jason from victoria sent us i'll read it to you love jeff's plug about amal cutting elliot's keyboard tapping made me think of the times Elliot was clearly eating, making food or coffee while talking. So do I think you can do it? Yes, because anyone that's either heard you here on this podcast or who heard you on my radio show daily knows that when I speak, generally you tune out and do something else. And you'll hear a couple of words here and there that'll be trigger words for you where you'll jump in and say, oh, I guess Jeff was mentioning that. And regardless of what

I just said, you'll just go on and pontificate based on a series of words or maybe just one word that you heard. So do I think you can do it? Yes, because Elliot, you've done it before. It's that obvious, eh? Oh, dude, man, this is like a cantaloupe right down the middle. This is like a slow-hanging curveball. You take out of the yard, the pitcher just nods and asks for the ball from the umpire before it even goes over the left field wall.

This is all BX's fault because he's the one who told me about Yellowstone. And I binge-watched it last season and loved it. I loved BX dropping in on you guys last night that was hilarious that was well done that was so good that was very well done okay tag time 32 thoughts the podcast presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup as we mentioned some emails coming up a little bit later on on the program. We've been negligent. I'm a bad host. Blame it on me.

But one of the things that... Blame it on Jeff. Blame it on the rain and blame it on Merrick. Let's start with Chicago. And the news on Saturday afternoon, Jeremy Culleton and his staff outside of Mark Crawford dismissed as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks. Derek King takes over on an interim capacity. He gets called up from Rockford that night as well.

Rockford has their season opener. And with that, by the way, Sheldon Keefe becomes the youngest coach in the NHL at 41. Your thoughts on Jeremy Culleton and what happened there. Before we get to Derek King and what's next, your thoughts on Jeremy Culleton, who I think all of us realize and accept was put in a really difficult position right from the get-go. I didn't realize either. It was three years to the day that Joel Quenville got fired that Jeremy Culleton was fired. Somebody pointed that out to me, and it surprised me.

You know, nobody believed in Jeremy Culleton more than Stan Bowman. in Jeremy Culleton more than Stan Bowman. And the moment that Stan Bowman was out, it was only a matter of time. Did you watch the Winnipeg game on Friday? Yeah. Pretty obvious, right? The 5-1 score was generous to the Hawks. That was not a 5-1 game.

That really was much worse than 5-1. You could tell this team was flat flat flat like i don't like it when people say i don't want to be the person who replaces this enormously successful individual i want to be the person who replaces the person who tried to replace the enormously successful individual do you understand what i'm saying i do i know i know you don't like it because we've had this conversation before i know you don't like it but can you understand it yeah yeah i like i understand it but i think it's loser thinking I really think it's loser thinking I don't like it at all in broadcasting sometimes I hear like when there's a really successful host or a really successful analyst or someone who's really successful at a certain job I've had people

tell me well I don't want to replace that person because nobody's gonna like me but i want to replace the person who goes in who fails that's what i hate that i hate it i know you don't like that talk but you can at least appreciate that there is some wisdom there no i know the no the old say the history doesn't repeat itself but sometimes it rhymes yeah generally this is the outcome elliot now i'm not saying you shouldn't do it just because it's hard i've never believed in that and i'm with you there yeah but history does show us that this is an incredibly difficult thing to pull off no matter what industry you're in yes okay you know what just for the sake of the podcast and we can move on i will concede this point to you but i still hate it and disagree with mark that amel he conceded this point to you, but I still hate it and disagree with it. Mark that, Amel. He conceded a point to me.

Let's mark that and move on. I just think that Culleton, like the GM believed in him. Bowman stood by him. And this year, before the investigative report dropped, I don't believe that Chicago was looking to fire Culleton. Even though they got off to a terrible start, I still believe Bowman was supporting Culleton and was determined not to fire him.

And then obviously comes the report, Stan Bowman is out, and his biggest fan in the organization was gone. And you looked at the way they played and i just think that without his biggest backer there culleton was naked and it was time to do something else derrick king goes in yoda interim head coach yoda um goes in i remember the maple leaves used to put like a little yoda yes yoda figurine in his stall he had a really good shot derrick king did yeah you're a really good shooter good player he comes in from rockford to take over on an interim capacity yep the general manager is also in on an interim basis, and that is Kyle Davidson.

Yep. I think a lot of us are trying to figure out a few things here. One, is Kyle Davidson going to be the guy long-term with the Chicago Blackhawks? And if so, whenever there's a new general manager, you try to get a feel for their style, how they do things, where their defaults are in times of strain. I don't know that we can really read much into this one. This is the, you know, what we need someone up here fast. And we have a AHL affiliate in Rockford for a reason.

Here comes Derrick King. Not to take anything away from Derrick King, the head coach. You know, we hope for his sake. He's incredibly successful with the Chicago Blackhawks. And here comes Derek King, not to take anything away from Derek King, the head coach. You know, we hope for his sake, he's incredibly successful with the Chicago Blackhawks. Before we get into Derek King, does this tell you anything about Kyle Davidson and his position and his standing with the Hawks right now? This is a big move. Did you watch the press conference on Sunday? I did not.

Okay. So I didn't realize there was one going on and I kind of rushed on to watch it. And then I read some of the quotes. First of all, Derek King is going to coach the rest of the year, right? Yep. So that's the number one piece of information that we learned. The second thing that I don't know, we learned it, but we were certainly left an impression of it is that Kyle Davidson's

going to get some runway here. It doesn't sound like they're in a rush to hire a new general manager. Again, I want to say, this is just me thinking, okay? I'm not saying it. I'm not reporting it. It's just me thinking it. The Chicago organization, because of everything that's happened on and off the ice, is very clear to me. And we now know they're engaged in settlement talks and they will continue in settlement talks with Kyle Beach. This is an organization that is going to have to make a lot of decisions about its future. And I wonder if Davidson is being given an audition for the job. I don't know the answer to that. I don't think you know the answer to that.

But my comment to that is, why not? to that is, why not? Like you have someone in here who's a new face, a new voice, someone we assume who comes in with new ideas, a new vision, maybe a new direction. I don't know. But my answer to that would be, well, why not? If he can do the job, why not? Which is not to say that you can't bring in someone to work in concert with him, an established former veteran general manager, or a supercharged team president that can be more of a new face for the organization. But I do like that thinking. I always like the thinking when there's someone new to give them a real shot at it. And give them a chance.

And to your point, give them some runway. So I'm going to credit Ben Pope, who works for the Chicago Sun-Times. Because I'm actually reading the quotes from his article. because I wanted to make sure I quoted Kyle Davidson accurately. He said that the CEO, Danny Wertz, has handed him full autonomy and authority to act as he sees fit. As I continue to evaluate and I get exposed to the different aspects of the organization, there's definitely going to be some changes. I have strong opinions on how certain things should run, how certain things should operate.

And then he also says, we're going to learn a lot. I'm going to learn a lot in terms of what we see over the next weeks and months. We can decide what direction we want to take at that time so you tell me if you think i'm wrong here but this sounds like a person who believes he's in the pilot seat this sounds like a person who expects to be making major decisions you know let's look at the roster hang on one sec let me throw one thing in here yeah it was pretty obvious to everybody that in stan bowman's mind the rebuild was over and then the start of the season happened and everyone said um maybe the rebuild shouldn't be over and maybe even though we thought we took a step forward

maybe we should reset this again and as much as there's going to be a lot of change in this organization maybe players need to be part of it as well. Well, the number one guy I think of is Fleury. Yep. And this is the Vesna Trophy winner from last year who's off to a rough start this year. And part of the reason is that the Blackhawks just bleed chances. They absolutely bleed chances. But I think teams are going to look at Fleury

and just say he's better than this. At some point in time, I think there are going to look at flurry and just say he's better than this like at some point in time i think there's going to be a market for him this year right so that's the first thing that comes to mind but davidson seems to me he's talking like a guy who believes he's going to have the ability to make major decisions. Well, to me, the major decision is, did we make a mistake thinking the rebuild was over? And if so, what do we do about it? Like, isn't that the major decision right now with the Chicago Blackhawks?

Did we not make a mistake here? Whether you did or you didn't, there's certain players that you're not moving, right? Correct. I think you're probably deciding who you absolutely have to keep. And then what are you doing around them? Strong. See, that's what I wonder about.

Now that Culleton's gone, Bowman's gone, does that change his standing in the organization? Well, the game's going on right now. It's 1-1 late in the third period, and I've got it on my television. Three minutes left. Strom tonight is a little over 12 minutes. I guess we watch and see. But anyway, I think the organization has to make a lot of decisions

on and off the ice about what it's going to do to fix the brand so when they say we might wait until next year to do some things i don't think it's just deciding on a new coach i think this is going to be a year for chicago of top to bottom we're going to be doing a lot of new things. So you think this is a full audit of the organization? Absolutely. It is. The logo. I've wondered about the logo.

The statues. I've wondered about the statues. The ambassadors. I've wondered about that. How proactively do you change your organization it could be a lot i think that'd be well received there was a game they had recently it was our hometown hockey game last monday ottawa they they won that game five to one five to one yeah i just heard the gate that night was extremely low we all know

coming out of covid there's some issues but fans speak right yeah and that was a night i heard that the organization looked internally and said fans are speaking and we know what they're saying okay let's park the hawks talk here. Although this will continue all season long. A couple of things that are out there of recent note. The Ottawa Senator is calling up Eric Brandstrom. Yep. My initial thought was showcase. The player Hawks just won, by the way.

They did? Like, my thing is like backwards. Sorry, I cut something wrong ladies and gentlemen jeff merrick just did something that gets you fined that gets you fine no we're going into overtime actually i just looked up at the screen and i saw a hawk celebration in the corner and it was for a previous goal if that happens while we're watching games, whether live or in the room where we view games at hockey night,

you get fined or you buy dinner or something like that. You cannot look at a replay and say, oh, they just won in overtime or something like that. Hold on a second here. It's not like I showed up to a podcast 25 minutes later or anything, Elliot. I had a good excuse. You did have a good excuse. I just want to say for the record.

We're not going to share it on the air. Which we're not telling everybody what that excuse was. It was an excellent excuse, so well done. Oh, by the way, I did want to say thanks to all the people who tweeted that the tease on Jack Eichel on Saturday night, the fun little ending, was good. I'm glad people liked it. Yeah, that was excellent. The Home Alone picture.

Okay, hang on. Hawks just won yeah i'm right no you were not right i was right hawks win in overtime alex to break it put it in behind claros and the blackhawks win and derrick kingston you may beat their Central Division rivals, the Nashville Predators, 2-1. Well, congratulations to Derrick King. First.

You had a premonition. Yeah. You're a psychic. Ooh, the brinkets. That's a big one for him. So anyway, well, the camera guys were doing a great job of setting up. Oh, I did credit the camera guys last time a great job of setting up oh i did credit the

camera guys last time and they only get credit once they don't get credit twice oh geez tough crowd but while they were setting up i was doing a radio hit and uh i had to walk off into the side and that picture was was there he tried to hide it i guess oh that's and it was right there i said there is no way you are getting away without explaining this. That's fantastic. A quick thing on Eichel. I mentioned this on Saturday. He's in Vegas now.

Did you see the reception he got, first of all? Oh, yeah. I saw him getting interviewed by Millard, too. True Vegas fashion. As the limo pulls up, it is completely Vegas and it's beautiful. So he's in Vegas now. He's deciding on his course of care this week. We all know he's getting the artificial disc replacement. He's just sort of figuring out when he's going to get it done and who's going to do the surgery. So that'll all

get taken care of, maybe even by the time you listen to this podcast. I mentioned Eric Brandstrom a couple of seconds ago before we detoured again to the Hawks and then Jack Heichel. Let's go back to Ottawa here. Eric Brandstrom called up by the Ottawa Senators. My first thought on that was showcase, but should it be my first thought in your estimation? Well, if you saw the Senator's tweet, which came out just before we did this podcast, I guess they have a COVID issue, right? Yep. Nick Holden and their assistant coach, Jack Capuano, are both in the protocol. So Brandstrom was called up to play. I mean, look, it's going to be interesting.

I think, you know, Brandstrom has switched agents. And as we've talked about many times, when you switch an agent, it's not because you want nothing to happen, right? So, you know, this is an important time for him. I have no doubt teams are going to be watching him, but the Sanders haven't played well defensively. There's going to be an opportunity for him.

So another GM, when I mentioned in one of the notes a couple weeks ago that Branstrom was potentially available, another GM told me that there were some teams that reached out to to about him in the summer but he admitted that he'd heard they were low balls and pierre dorian was like no i'm not letting myself get low balled here like this is still a very good player so this is a big opportunity for him and to be honest they could really use him they have a defense pair that looks really good and then they're really struggling behind them you know Shabbat and Zub is your top

pair and then they're really struggling behind them so it's an opportunity for Brandstrom they need some help back there and he's talented enough to give it A couple of thoughts from what we saw on the weekend. I don't know what more we can say about Connor McDavid. Barry wired that right off the bar. Here comes McDavid. Backhand! Score! Connor McDavid!

He just went right down the middle and ties the game at five. What can you say? That is absolutely outstanding. The pressure, the bar by Barry as he pitches in. Connor McDavid's got to wait here. He wants to drive it right back into the zone. He looks up. He waits. He waits. He waits. And thenDavid's got to wait here. He wants to drive it right back into the zone. He looks up. He waits.

He waits. He waits. And then he puts the Jets on. Look at this. Talk about stick handling the ball. What a move around Georgia to finish it off on the biggest night this year with number four going to the Raptors. You just knew that Connor McDavid was going to make a statement.

What a goal. Not necessarily just the fact that he was able to pull it off, but I don't know many players that would look at four players in front of them and say to himself, I'm going to dance all four of them. I'm going to go right down Main Street. Yeah. Just that that thought even enters your mind

as something that you think you can potentially do like honestly elliot after we saw the goal and we all whoa like it's spectacular at what point did you think to yourself that's a decision he made like he looked up and saw that and still said this is low percentage for almost everybody in the nhl except for me i'm going to try this because this is how we play hockey on the planet that i come from what did you make of the mcdavid move on friday well first of all the best line i heard about it was he looks at them and he says oh there's only four of them it's not like there's five yeah the number one thing that stood out to me was his reaction after he scored

he looked surprised you know what i think it's more like he thinks this team can win and i think it's taken him to another level mcd McDavid to me is a bad liar because his body and his tone gives away a lot of what he's thinking. And I see a guy this year who believes his team can win. And I think it's only made him even more determined to be better. He's got a high standard for himself. He demands a lot of himself. And now that he thinks his team

is good enough to win i think he's demanding even more and the celebration after he scored that goal i could be totally reading this wrong because i do tend to overthink these things but i see a guy who was so excited because, A, it was a great goal, and, B, it's a goal his team absolutely needed, and, C, he thinks that this team can win. Because in the past, we've seen him score some big goals. Hey, you know what the feeling was, Elliot, in the past? And you could see that Connor would sense it

and would put extra pressure on him. There were some of those Oilers teams that just waited for Connor to save every game. Yeah. To do something. We're going to play 50-50 puck out there and then just take our chances that Connor's going to win this thing for us.

Like, how long did that go on at Edmonton, that vibe? Quite a while. Connor's just going to save us. Don't worry. Connor's just going to save us. It's different now at Edmonton. It is different now. I do think they're going to go out to add.

I do. It's just a matter of when. I think they're going to look at another goalie, just depending on how everything holds up. And I think they could look at a left shot D. But he looks up and down around and he says, this team is good enough to win. And I think that takes him to another level. So a couple of things about that goal. Someone compared it to a slalom skier. The best slalom skier goes down the hill. Their head never moves.

Watch McDavid's head. It never moves. He's going in and out. Never moves. And the thing he said in the postgame about... I'm paid to score big goals, and I'm paid to do that type of stuff, and it's just doing my job.

You know, I thought... It's hilarious. First of all, I love that quote, and you know where I first heard it? One of my favorite comedians is Chris Rock. Oh, yeah, of course. And he had this bit about being praised because you're a good father supposed to be a

good father you're right you're supposed why should you be praised because you're a good father you shouldn't be praised because you're a good father you're supposed to be a good father i love that line i feel that way when it comes to my job my parentage everything like why should i get praise for that i'm supposed to be good at that you're paid to do a job you do the job i love that mcdavid said that you know which record i want to see him go for it's that 51 games a little point to start the season gretzky could do it that's the one i want to see this year he could totally do it i mean he's on a pace now to shatter salary cap scoring records. To shatter

salary cap scoring records. Which is a caveat we have to throw into a lot of these things. A couple more things around the NHL before we get into some emails. Is everything now fine in Leafland? They beat the Boston Bruins on Saturday night 5-2. Marner looks good again.

You know, 11 points in his last five games. Everything okay now in Toronto, Elliot? You know what was the best thing that ever happened to the Maple Leafs? The Amazon show. The best? Do you think that was the best thing now? It used to be the worst thing. Because people were getting mad at me when I said they got ruined by amazon so now i'm just going the other way

it's opposite day it was a stroke of genius whoever green lighted that it's brilliant look at the look at the results they ignore the beginning of the season i do think now that this is proof that i think matthews is best player. I think the offense goes through Marner because he's the distributor and he is the facilitator. When he is not himself, the offense just dies with him. He's the dealer. Yeah, he's the dealer. He's the dealer, man.

I just feel that when he is not going the offense is not there and when he's going in confident the offense rises and i think because of his role and the way he plays and all that and he's the guy who sets up tavaris and matthews i still think matthews is the best player but i think marner determines the offense one final thing here before we get to emails that you mentioned on saturday which has raised a couple of eyebrows st louis blues yeah asking for covid cap relief and getting rejected what can you tell us they're going through a situation obviously they're fully vaxxed we're down to one unvaccinated player and there have been a number of teams that stepped up and said, look, we're vaccinated.

So if we go through something and we're shorthanded, can we get relief? And I think it should be done. I think they should do it. I've said, even if they want to just use it as a bonus overage and take it off the cap next year, they should do it. Next year, yeah. But the league won't do it.

And the Blues asked for COVID relief last week and they didn't get it. And one of the reasons is that they wanted to call up Scott Peruna Next year, yeah. and a lot of teams are upset about this and there have been some talks and some teams have said it and i think the league has said it why are we testing as often as we are for vaccinated players basically you get tested every 72 hours and one of the things they decided to do because a number of the doctors were against it they said look if you don't want canceled games, you have to keep testing as often as we are. And if you want to go to the Olympics, which admittedly some don't want, but the players really want, you have to keep testing as often as you are. And it was tough to explain last night on the air, but I have the exact note right here. I'm just reading it right now. Is that one of the issues was there's an expedited procedure to confirm positives to make sure that they are accurate and not false positives.

So basically the false positives are in the lab-based PCR testing. So what tests they're going to use more often now are called MESA tests, MESA point-of-care tests. They're at club facilities in the U.S., and they have improved their accuracy. Similar options are being explored for Canadian clubs. So that's what they're looking at. Because one of the things that they said was the people were upset about this whole system were saying is that there were too many false positives.

So is there a way we can fix those or address those quicker? Now, I will say this, Jeff, the NBA sent out a note. It was reported on Sunday morning that they are recommending boosters for players, coaches and referees. I'm curious to see what this is going to mean for the NHL. I had heard that, you know, it was they got everybody vaccinated, but one guy. that, you know, it was, they got everybody vaccinated, but one guy, but I know they were nervous about, okay, what happens if we try to do boosters? Story to follow. Elliot, let's take a quick break, come back,

and finally get to some emails and 32 Thoughts to Podcast. all right welcome back to the podcast here uh elliot you know what's hot you know what's alive you know what's happening right now what's that the thought line right. Open for business. Call us up. Leave your thoughts, your takes. And just remember, not two minutes long. Elliot likes them short and snappy. Emil would appreciate not having to edit the calls, but nonetheless, the Thought Line is open. 1-833-311-3232. I don't have a snappy way to say this or sing this or rhyme this.

So here it is as ham-fisted as it might be. 1-833-311-3232. It is the thought line. Call up, leave your questions, your takes, your thoughts, and the better ones will get played here. That is our promise to you. And by the way, Elliot's paying for all of it. So don't worry about the tolls.

Elliot's picking up the tab. Thanks, Dad. 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca is the email address. Let's get to some right now. From Nicholas. You referenced Conor McDavid earlier, Elliot. This one is about Conor McDavid. Is there or can there be an argument made for McDavid to be one of the best

athletes in sports after seeing his one V4 spectacular? It's on ice, not on the ground, which makes you have to be more athletic. One of the best athletes in sports, Connor McDavid, to which Elliot Friedman says what absolutely and we talked about it earlier about how his head didn't move but the other thing we showed on saturday night was you do this on the ice and you can do it all and also on the track and matt nickel was kind enough to send me some video from a few years at the bio steel camp where there's a 20 meter dash and at 10 meters a light comes on you have to go either right or left how quickly can you change your direction

and do it properly and he's the best at it it's the combination of being naturally gifted and working at it and working at it to a high level. He's a phenomenal athlete. Phenomenal. When that type of work rate meets that type of athleticism, that's what you can get. Look at that goal against Columbus a few years ago. Just people flailing around on the ice. He's completely in control. Well done. Off to Jordan Eberle.

And now through the neutral zone comes Connor McDavid. Double team. Got it back. Rish. Shot. Score. What a beautiful move. Deep backhand. Double team, got it back. Rish shot, score! What a beautiful move! Deep backhand went back to the forehand!

And welcome back, Connor! Time of the goal, 9.58, 2-1 Edmonton! You know how hard that is? To me, the one against the Maple Leafs, the one against, you know, unfortunately, Morgan Riley, where he looks like he's playing basketball. Like, isn't that, I mean, you're more of a basketball guy than me. Isn't that like a basketball cut? Oh, yeah. Like, he looked like he's playing basketball. Like, isn't that, I mean, you're more of a basketball guy than me.

Isn't that like a basketball cut? Oh, yeah. Like, he looked like he was playing basketball. Morgan Riley back. McDavid beat him. Rich shot score. Beautiful move. Connor McDavid danced around Morgan Riley and then finishes off the Leafs.

It was spectacular. Okay, here's a comment from Chuck in Baxter, Minnesota about Jack Eichel. Listen to this. This is interesting. I'm very happy for Jack Eichel. Based on what I've read, I suffered a similar injury. I'm older than dirt, 60. Hey, we're not that far off, bud.

What would you say about being older than dirt? Seriously. But I still love playing competitive hockey. I had the disc replacement surgery instead for many of the same non-hockey reasons articulated by Jack. Jack, I sincerely hope you find the procedure as life-changing and successful as my disc replacement surgery was for me. I noticed the positive results within hours and resumed all my activities between three to four weeks. So Saturday afternoon,

I spent a good chunk of time talking to Chris Weidman, UFC fighter. Yeah, not the hockey player, the UFC fighter. Correct. So I just wanted to get a sense of what, you know, what Eichel is looking at here because, listen, most doctors, you know, you do your research online, most doctors, and doctors tend to be conservative. It's their nature and you understand it. But generally they talk about five to six months on recovery. And when you spoke to Eichel, you know, he had mentioned three months and also mentioned he had talked to Chris Weidman and, you know, Weidman's recovery was three months. Jack's 25 years old, is in wonderful shape, elite level athlete. We know that certainly helps when you're recovering. But I asked Weidman, you know, what it was like for him. And he said,

after surgery right away, you know, to Chuck's point here, felt great. He said almost all of his strength came back and came back quickly. I asked him about his rehab and he said he was back to a hundred percent with zero neck issues eight to twelve weeks and he went from light to heavy workouts between six to eight weeks so there's that eight to twelve you know that eichel reference with you and that you know a lot of people in vegas have their fingers crossed about because all of a sudden that changes things for the Vegas Golden Knights. If Jack Eichel can come back in three months, I'm not a doctor. I just play one on television, podcasts, and radio.

It does seem ambitious to me, but that's one scenario from one of the most high profile athletes that's had this type of surgery let me add a little bit to that like we joke about how we ignore each other and type and send tweets while the other guy's talking i just did that while you were talking who were you just texting well i got a direct message on Sunday from an individual, and I've reached out to him because I want to talk to him on Monday. He is a former goalie, and not at a high level, but a guy who played goal. And he had a disc replacement done in 2011, and he blogged about it.

And after he had his disc replacement, his pain and issues were much better, and he got back to playing beer league goaltending and i want to talk to him about it obviously that's not the same as what jack eichel is going to try to do yeah but he did it he blogged about it i found he sent me the link i read through his blog online it's and i hope to talk to him and i'll link to it in the blog if I get it done. But I just think it was really interesting. I've learned so much in this process about this and I'm rooting for Eichel, but the main reason I'm rooting for him is that if he turns out to be right in this and clearly he's done his research,

it's going to be a breakthrough medically for a lot of people hang on i was hoping you got us there because i was going to ask you how much of a game changer could this one be and and and what are the effects of this because this really has been an enormous story that has you know a lot of different layers to it whether it's story that has you know a lot of different layers to it whether it's you know um players being in charge of their own care and why they're not and whether that will be a negotiation even before the cba expires this will now be more commonplace if it's successful for other athletes in hockey to do the same thing like Jack's the first here let's never lose sight of this like Jack Eichel is the first person to do that it

does bring along with it some risks because there isn't a historical precedent for anyone in the NHL but also this could open the door for a lot of other athletes in hockey Elliot and that's why I wanted to work what I've learned about spinal fusion, and I want to thank everybody who sent me direct messages about this, pro or con, because there's a lot of you who, especially after we had Dr. Prusmak on the podcast, who sent notes about your experiences with ADR or spinal fusion. And it just sounds to me like if this ADR works and it's worked for a lot of other places

around the world, just for a lot of people, it's going to make their life better. And for a lot of athletes, it's going to make their chances of coming back from injury better. That's why I want this to work. I really want this to work. For Eichel and for anyone else who's looking at a spinal fusion and saying at his age and saying, I'm not crazy about this and I'm glad there's another option available. Here's another email and Eichel is referenced in it, but it doesn't have to do specifically with Eichel. This is from flames fan,

Jeff. I was always under the impression an agent gets paid when a player signs a contract. That's true. If that is correct, then what happens when a player like Jack Eichel changes agents? How does a new agent get paid as I can't imagine they take on a new client for free? The way it works is, let's just say Jeff is a superstar center in the NHL. Now, I know this is already unbelievable and not plausible. There are plenty of knock-kneed skaters that have had very, very good careers, Elliot.

So I might just have a chance. Let's just say that Jeff is a 1A center and Amal is his agent. Okay. Amal signs Jeff to an eight-year, $80 million contract. Like where this is going? Yeah, continue. So the regular number for agents on their salaries, and some players negotiated differently with their agents,

but the industry standard is three percent so amal would get three percent of that let's just say in the middle for whatever reason jeff decides to change agents and he comes to me technically the way it works is they say he keeps almost for three years and then he goes to me for the last five for whatever reason. It doesn't switch. The agent that did the contract keeps the money. Now, are things done behind the scenes to make it work at an hourly wage or a certain payment structure? I don't know the answer to that.

But the way the NHLPA works is when it comes to the actual commission on the contract, it goes to the agent that negotiated the deal. There you go. Flames fan, Jeff. Thanks for the question. It's a good one. This is an interesting one. This comes to us from Melissa.

Jeff has said a few times on his show he has a lot of hope for the younger generation. I'm curious, do you two have young people working for you that have your ear to make sure you surround yourself with these important points of view how old are you almost 35 yeah i mean almost is certainly one per like jeff you're 51 right you're not yet 52 okay so you are 52 and i'm 51 almost think, generally is one of those, 35, but a lot of young people would probably call him a geezer too at that age. You noticing any wisdom hairs coming in, Amal, since you became a dad, by the way?

So many. Welcome to it, bud. I'll give someone an example here, okay? So there was a person who blocked me on Twitter once, okay? And I had to refer to them when it came to something. So I asked someone who's in my orbit, who's a little bit younger, what do I do about this? And they said to me, you do not refer to them.

You respect the block. If they've blocked you, you do not refer to them. You respect the block. If they've blocked you, you respect the block. So I said, okay. And I never mentioned them because I was told that the proper etiquette is you respect the block. And I think that's what I try to do. I always try to treat people right.

People may think I fail in that. People might think I don't do that. That's fine. Everybody's entitled to your opinion. But my default is I try to treat people right. And I find if you usually do that, it works out well. But there are some occasions where i will go to someone who's younger even younger than normal and say what is the proper etiquette when it comes to this and that situation where i was blocked was one of them you one of my guiding principles in life in general um is to unlearn something daily i try to go about my life about unlearning things that I have learned in the past. And I find the best way to do that

is to talk to younger people. And in my circle of daily calls and texts and DMs and cups of coffee and workout buddies, there's a lot of people in their 20s that I communicate with on a consistent basis. Because to me, that helps me unlearn a lot of people in their 20s that I communicate with on a consistent basis. Because to me, that helps me unlearn a lot of the things that I think I know. Because things are always changing and there's no other way. Like if I talk to someone my own age, I'm just going to get the exact same conversation

that I've had with people my entire life. There's not going to be a whole lot of new ways to look at things with those conversations. In a lot of these cases, so I'm sure you get the same thing too, whether it's by direct message mainly, it's, hey, can I get five minutes of your time to talk about your industry or what you do? I'm hoping to do the same thing. You know, usually I'm pretty eager to have those conversations with people because I end up learning more. I like to challenge people that I talk to by asking them about all the assumptions that

I have, not just of, you know, for the purposes of this podcast, hockey, but other things as well. And I find that's one of the ways that keeps me in a mind frame of unlearning something daily. And listen, swallow the ego and not think that you know everything i think that's part of it as well so yeah so i keep an orbit of it sounds so weird i keep a cabal or something like that sounds so it sounds so weird i you know i just talk to a lot of younger people because there's a lot there's a lot of value in there because that's where all the new ideas are. Seriously.

One of my biggest fears is that I become one of those people that when I first broke into the industry, we say, yeah, this person hasn't changed their mind in 20 years and they're not about to now. I'm terrified of being that person that's completely fixed on their ideas and their mindset and completely incapable of changing. If I ever become that person, just honestly, Amal, Elliot, tell me, and I will leave. At that point, I have no business being around. Yeah. You know, I just think I remember like when I was 20 and people who are older saying, I can't keep up with all the changes I was 20 and people who are older saying, I can't keep up with all the changes and thinking how stupid that was. And now that I'm 50 and everybody else is 20, you can't keep up with all of the changes. Like there are certain things now that are conventional that I never would have thought of. And you just got to make sure you don't trip over them. Because like I said, I see a lot of people who offend

without meaning to offend. So you just got to be smart about it. Last one for the podcast today. This from Derek. I just became a scout for a junior aid team in my hometown. Congratulations. Congratulations, Derek. Well done.

And would love to get my hands on some quality literature um are there any books by former nhl scouts and if so are there any that you recommend books for scouts yeah there's one that comes to my mind right away that i read when it came out this would have been around yeah 2011 or 2012 and that's called the art of scouting by shane malloy gare joyce's book on scouting was really good what was that future greats and heartbreak and heartbreaks yeah some good stories in there i think a lot of that revolved around the eric johnson draft it's michael lombardi's book on um bill belichick and Bill Walsh working for them. Hold on. Because the one thing that he talks about in that book is he talks about

identifying what is important to your organization and becoming really good at looking for that. Like he talked about in the NFL, there were some teams that really valued a certain kind of player and they always became really good at finding that kind of player and they always became really good at finding that kind of player and then of course there would be situations where you'd say well maybe this kind of player doesn't fit what we normally look for but i'm gonna fight like hell for him anyway his book is called gridiron genius and in there he does talk about how Bill Walsh and Bill Parcells like certain kind of players.

And so he or the other scouts with him would target those players because he knew that their coaches were committed to those skills. You could find a player that wasn't good in a lot of things or wasn't ideal in a lot of things, but he could do something really well that your organization valued. And I thought that was a very good piece of advice. As you were talking and I was ignoring you, as you do with me, I pulled Malloy's book off my shelf, The Art of Scouting by Shane Malloy, how the hockey experts really watch the game and decide who makes it. And it's, you know, what to look for, you know, on face-offs, puck skills, puck movement. Well, you know, what types of things scouts look for. There's a section here, a couple of sections,

with some words of advice from various scouts around the globe. It's a really interesting read. Like if you're looking for something, Derek, that's hockey specific, I would go with, with the artist scouting by Shane Malloy. Absolutely.

Anything else to add Elliot, before we wrap this one up, anything you're looking forward to this week? Not really. I can't think of anything else. Very well. Then we'll close with this. Taking us out,

Elliot, a West coast artist. Who's been part of the Canadian music scene for a long time. JP Maurice just dropped his fifth full-length record where he evolved his sound with sweeping melodies using his powerful vocal range. From Pressure Makes Diamonds is JP Maurice with Runaway on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Thanks for joining us today. Cool You think you'll make the rules

You got your finger on that trigger But you can't quite remember who you're shooting through Clean The spaces in between Well girl you Like it dirty But the nights are getting blurry In that bar scene

Boys Acting like you had no choice You can't tell what's right from what's wrong And what matters, you gave me through the chatter at that party Runaway, little runaway What are you running from? Runaway, little runaway You're another dishonest runaway

Little runaway What are you running from? Runaway,est runaway Little runaway What are you running from? Run away, little runaway Come home and get some