32 Thoughts: The Podcast - We’re Live From Beautiful PEI

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

In this special edition of 32 Thoughts live from Charlottetown, PEI, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman begin by focusing on Artemi Panarin and the New York Rangers as he enters the final year of his contract. They switch over to the Montreal Canadiens as expectations rise for them this season (13:23). That turns into a conversation about Auston Matthews and the challenge he faces to prove the doubters wrong (22:34). The Final Thought focuses on a few loose ends including McTavish, Luke Hughes, Evangelista, and Pietrangelo (26:27).Kyle and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thoughtline (31:37).In the final segment we take questions from our live audience (43:47).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

All right, I saw you in the gym. You know, I got to tell you, like, this is... You were lifting a lot of weight, too. Sorry, what's that? How much? You were lifting a lot of weight, too. How much? I love you. You're my favorite guest.

32 Thoughts, the podcast is presented by GMC. We are live from Charlottetown Prince Edward Island for the NHL Media Summit from the crease to the coast, co-hosted by Sportsnet. Welcome, everybody. How cool is this? The 2025 NHL Media Summit from the crease to the coast, co-hosted by Sportsnet. What a fantastic backdrop here on the harbor, just off the Hillsboro where the three rivers meet. This is absolutely spectacular.

Charlottetown, P.E.I. Think about it. Over 160 years ago, 23 delegates descended upon here to begin the legwork for what became Confederation a few years later. 23. Nowadays, 23 thoughts isn't even enough to get you a blog. You need 32 of them. Elliot Friedman is here from Hockey Night in Canada and Sportsnet. Ron McLean is not here, but his spirit lives on in Kyle Bacoskis.

That was a good tribute to our leader. Yes, yeah, thank you for that. Dom Shammati dealt with thunderstorms and lightning and misconnections, all to get here this afternoon, but it's got everything up and running. So, Dom, welcome. Great to have you from Vancouver all the way out to the island here on the Atlantic. Coast. So I asked you, last pot, I asked you a similar question to this, and you absolutely scalded me for asking it. So I want to tread carefully when I ask you, have you ever been to

Charlottetown before? Yes, once before, long time ago. I was supposed to come out here for a golf trip a couple years ago, but we had an illness in the family, and I couldn't do it. So there were some people on, I'm really looking forward to our golf tomorrow, but also there, I I met a couple of people on the plane who came out and are staying for a week to play the various golf courses here. So it's a reminder that I have to do that. Have you been to PEI before? No, it was my first, like I've done New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland once a couple years ago. Never to PEI until last night I got in.

And so this afternoon, I went out and did a coffee run for the group here before the show. And I'm walking back along Water Street and there's a tour bus or it was like a boat. It was coming down the street. I think it was called a harbor hopper. And you could hear the tour guide as they're going by. And just as they were going by me, I can hear it say, are there any Maple Leaf fans on this boat? No?

Okay, good. So you'll see the building on the left over here. That was constructed around the last time the Maple Leafs won a Stanley Cup. But I just thought, like, you don't have to go very far here to be connected to hockey, which was really neat. Or Maple Leaf jokes, apparently. Yes, yeah. That runs throughout the country coast to coast.

All right, so just a couple quick questions here. I was really worried when I walked into this room and I saw bar closed. I was thought that was going to be a problem. So I'm glad to see it's open because I think sometimes you need a little bit of help to enjoy this podcast. But secondly, we just want to have an idea. A bit later, we're probably going to take a few questions. And I know sometimes we get people, they're really nervous about asking questions. and I always have this line.

A, don't be nervous, and B, only reporters ask stupid questions. If you ask the players and the coaches, they will tell you that. Only reporters ask stupid questions, fans and sponsors of the games like you are, you never ask bad questions. So if you have something later, don't be afraid to ask it. Just want to get a bit of an idea here, Kyle and I did. fans of teams okay show of hands

how many people here are Leafs fans okay a little bit more it's close to the majority okay it's definitely a majority it's close to unanimous

okay how many people here are Canadians fans one two don't be afraid guys put your hands up the Leaf fans aren't going to bite you okay we're all here for the good

of the sport you're not going to get attacked I saw your hands and barely went over your shoulder. You were so nervous. Okay. Oilers. Let's go Oilers. They're hot right now. How many Oilers fans? Okay. Okay. So the NHL head office

wants the Oilers to win the Stanley Cup. That's what we just learned. Back there with the camera. Did you put your hand up? Okay. I didn't say your team. Who's your team? Rangers. Oh, okay. We'll get to them. We have the non-Canadian in the room. We have the Rangers.

Okay. And anybody else I missed? Anybody else I missed? Flames. Calgary Flames. Good choice. Up and coming team. You can fight the Euler fans later. Okay. All right. So why don't we, we usually start by doing the news part of the podcast. So since there is a Rangers fan here, and we were going to talk a little bit about one of their key players, why don't we do that first? Yeah. So our 10. I don't mean to tell you what to do.

But you'll still do it. But I'm still going to do it. smile on your face. That's great. Artembe Panarnelli, as you know, signed a big ticket with New York a number of years back. It would really kind of a player that fell into their lap and kick started what they had just

begun, a rebuilding process that ended up being much shorter than maybe some thought at the outset. Suddenly now we're in a position where he's in the final year of his contract. So naturally the questions come up of what's next? What are you hearing? Well, so a lot of us have been talking about guys like McDavid

who are heading in the last year of their deals, guys like Eichel, and Panarin is the guy who's probably had the least news about him, and as you said, he has been the key to the Ranger Revival. Artemey Panarin's contract, heading into last season, made him the highest

paid winger in the National Hockey League at almost $11.65 million. He's now been surpassed. Miko Rantan and Mitch Marner are now the two highest paid wingers in the league at $12 million, and they're probably going to be passed by Kyle Conner

and Kirill Kaprizov when they sign. Now, Panarin is up, and Anzacopatar, who just announced his retirement, he had signed 10 years ago an eight-year deal with an average annual salary of 10 million a year. At the end of that deal, the L.A. Kings went to him and said, we need you to take a little bit less. It'll really help us win, and Panarin did that. Or sorry, Kopitar did that at two times seven. And I understand at some point this off-season, the Rangers had that kind of a conceptual discussion with Panarin.

Is there a way that you could do for the Rangers what Kopitar did for the Kings? And obviously at this point in time, it hasn't happened. So I don't know where that's going to go. I don't know if that's going to be a possibility. But I do know that the two sides had the conversation. And obviously at this point, Panarin's unsubed. signs. So we'll see where that one goes, but I did want to update the Rangers fans with where that one stood. You know, everybody's waiting on McDavid. Everybody's talking about

McDavid. It's, it's the biggest story. And I just think right now, it is totally in his hands. You know, with the interview we did with him, where I asked all the good questions and Kyle asked all the bad questions, the one that a lot of people have, the, the, the, the, the one that's got the most response I felt was the one about what do the Oilers have to do to convince him. And his answer was nothing. That was the first word that came out of his mouth. He thinks they're very good this year. And someone just said to me that that is the crux of it right there.

This is now Connor McDavid's decision. It is purely in his hands as to when he is going to be comfortable to say, okay, I'm signing. and I still think there is some hope out there that'll happen before the season but I wouldn't want to handicap that the possibility of that occurring but the other thing I do think we were right about and I always like to reiterate that

because I'm wrong about so many things but I think the other thing that we were right about is that I think this number for McDavid is going to come in lower than a lot of people initially predicted. Like in the summer I think people were saying, it was going to be 16 or does somebody go max and like if he signs in edmonton it's going to be lower than we thought he's looking at dry sidle at uh 14 he's looking at bushard now at 10

a half nurse at 925 i think the number if he signs in edmonton is going to be lower than many predicted and what someone actually did say to me this week is that as the players are trying to and the agents are trying to push the player a higher a number higher i think there are two team's hoping that McDavid does signs, they can say, hey, if he comes in, say for argument's sake at 15.5, nobody's getting more than Connor McDavid. And I think some agents are starting to say, hey, that's his situation. It's not necessarily our situation. So this whole thing that we've been talking about, Kyle, the new reality of the salary cap, it's starting to bleed out into that one too. So do you think you don't believe there would be, I'm sure there would be

consternation amongst other agents if he's going to take somewhere in that ball. park of going, holy smokes, why is the best player in the game going at that number where everybody else is trying to drive things upwards? Do you think that's enough of an argument for other teams around the league to say, look, that's Connor and the Oilers. We're different here? Teams could say that. The question is, is it going to work? Like, we're in a room full of negotiators here, right? And you can say anything you want in a negotiation. The question is if it's going to work. And, you know, someone

said to me that you should get residuals from this book, The Bald Truth, that you keep mentioning. But it's one of the best books on negotiations I've ever read. And the biggest skill you can have is say, well, that's their situation. That's not this situation. And if McDavid does come into a lower number and teams try to use that as a ceiling, you can bet that some players and agents are going to try that. Like one of the things that some people predicted last summer, which might actually turn out to be true, is that Caprizov may end up getting paid more than McDavid on this next contract. Wow.

Well, yeah, because of everything you laid out, it makes total sense. And I just, like, I understand why it's important to have a salary cap in the NHL for the overall health of the league for so many reasons. But if there's one thing you can kind of point at and go, that doesn't quite add up. Like, I feel the best player, if the max salary is 20%, Elliot, the best player in the game, by and large by a mile, like he should be able to earn that dollar while at the same time not having to go,

well, it may cost you your ability to form a roster around you that can compete for a Stanley Cup. You know what I mean? Like there should be a way that both can happen. But I suppose we don't live in that world. No, no, we don't. It's a fantasy land.

You live in fantasy land, ideal and real facts. Hey, can I circle back to Panarin just quickly here? At this point, do you have any reason to believe, like the Rangers are, they don't go out and hire Mike Sullivan if they're not trying to get back to a team that's threatening deep into the playoffs again after missing a year ago. Do you have any reason to believe that if things aren't progressing that they don't see a path in the short term in terms of formulizing a new contract with him? Are they okay playing out the year? I think that's a great question. Like they went into last year with Shisterkin, right?

I think what like everybody in this room and everybody out there listening to this pot who negotiates what is the strongest position in a negotiation and that is being willing to wait, being willing to say no and eventually being willing to walk away. I think one of the new realities we're seeing is that more and more of these players and teams are unafraid of letting this play out longer than we're used to. The hardest thing is the noise. In the social media world, the hardest thing is the noise. Can you shut out the noise?

Can you eliminate the distractions? I would say last year that the Rangers going into the season with Shasturkin and then getting it done, probably at a higher number than they hope to, it says to me that they went through it once, they'll handle it if they have to do it a second time. Okay. Good to know. You want to talk a little Montreal? Sure.

There are some Montreal fans in the audience. So their preseason for a number of reasons is off to an exciting start. By the way, I could imagine you would know the answer to the question, highest scoring Prince Edward Islander in NHL history. Brad Richards? Correct. Ron would boot me off the show if I got that answer wrong. You know, the thing, Ron usually listens to the podcast on Saturday when he drives into the station.

And I could just imagine him going down the QEW or the Gardner Expressway. Well, nobody drives down the Gardner Expressway. You crawl along the Gardner Expressway and just driving off the side of the road if I got that one wrong. That's right. David Amber, what are you doing here in the free game show? Oh, my God. I hope they call Carolyn. Yeah.

And it's all Elliot's fault. Okay, so that was the easy one. Would you know the highest scoring defenseman to come out of Prince Edward Island? Off the top of my head, no. Noah Dobson. Already? Yeah. I should have guessed that.

That was a good setup. Montreal Canadiens and Noah Dobson, highest scoring defensemen. There we go. So there is a lot of excitement for him. I'm impressed. All right. It's taken a year and a year. like three weeks, but we're here.

I was really good. So Dobsons look good early. There's a lot of excitement about the kids as that group came off, an incredible second half of the year, a year ago. How about the moment last night, though, with both Jackie brothers in the lineup? Their mom, Simone, if you haven't heard the story,

so she works at a Costco just outside Hamilton. Got a lot of play a couple years ago because Arbor had worked there for a period of time when there wasn't much hockey for him to play, and the next thing you know, he's got a contract with the Montreal Canadiens. She was working there, and the boss found out that her two boys were playing last night, Tuesday night, in a preseason game and said to her, like, you've got to be there. Who knows how many times there's going to be an opportunity to go see them both play in an NHL building,

especially one like Montreal. So she surprised the boys, made the six-hour drive down to where they were staying. They woke up from their nap, and mom was there and was in the crowd, and both boys got on the score sheet. I don't know if you can draw it up any better. It's been a really neat story since Arbor first come on to the scene and that family just battling to do all they could to put their sons in a position to succeed

and they seem to be rewarding their parents here now with everything that they're accomplishing. How about what you saw last night in Montreal? I thought that was fantastic. A few years ago we did a story on the Jack Eye family and the parents are incredible people and the two of them are, well, there's more than two, but the two players, they're great kids. I remember when we did that story and there

was a big YouTube piece of it, someone called us from a team and said, you can't promote that story enough. Like, that is what hockey is supposed to be. And it was a really nice call to get because oftentimes a lot of the calls I get aren't as nice as that one. But, like, it was, it was fantastic and you can see that the Montreal fans they are wired for the season like they are they love those kids uh they are wired for the season I felt bad for Simonea because she had to drive back after the game because she said she had to work today um but that's a that's a fantastic story it's it was it was fun to watch like I'll admit um I love hockey and I'm watching Watching exhibition hockey, but I've got like one eye on the Blue Jays right now, so I'm kind of flipping back and forth.

But you could tell, like, when those two guys were on the ice and the one fight and just whenever they have the puck, that building was wired to see those two kids play together last night. This year in Montreal, like every year we sit there and we say it's not going to be Tampa, Florida. Florida, Boston, Toronto. One of those other teams is going to break loose. And last year, they got there, Montreal and Ottawa and Ottawa, and they got into the playoffs, and Boston obviously fell. But the hardest thing to me in the league is, all right, you're not sneaking up on anybody this year.

You're going to get everybody's best game. For years, you might get everybody's best game half the time, two-thirds of them. the time. Not this year. You're getting everybody's best game. And I'm really curious to see both Montreal and Ottawa play through that and how they handle that. But you can tell the fans in that Montreal building, they're wired for this year. They can't wait. You know, it's interesting. We talked about Nick Suzuki and what he said to John Cooper. Basically, what was your question to him at the at the media summit? Well, because he got invited to the

orientation camp in Calgary, the team Canada one with an eye on the Olympics in February, and he said he went up to John Cooper. He wanted to make a point to get to know him. He wanted the coaching staff to get to know him because, of course, he was kind of on the radar

for four nations, didn't get picked there. But you asked him, you're like, did you tell him, you know, like, I'll have a, I'll be ready for the Olympics kind of thing. And he didn't exactly He didn't back down. He wasn't shy, but he basically said, yeah. The interesting thing about that was, I had a couple people say to me that they think when it comes to Suzuki, because he hasn't played it the worlds, like you can have a good reason. This isn't to poke holes in why he didn't go.

And this is someone who's worked on some of these teams in the past. He told me that you have to beat out the guys who go to the worlds. If you don't go to the worlds, you have to beat out the guys who do. because these countries, they send messages that the worlds matter. Like, we want to do well at these tournaments. So he said that Suzuki, you look at all these guys, like how hard this team is going to make, he's going to have to not only play great,

and he's a great player, but he's going to have to beat out maybe some guys who might get the benefit of the doubt because they have been available to the worlds. So he thought it was very interesting that he said that. And he thinks that, you know, when you're the number one center on a team, you don't have a better opportunity

to look good than that position because you're playing great players every night. Opening night, he's got Austin Matthews, right? Opening night, everybody will be watching. You know, what does he do that night? Austin Matthews, we know he's going to be on the U.S. team. He said that that's a player he's going to watch at the start of this year.

But I love seeing that for the jack eyes. Yeah, and such a short runway for those that are trying to be on the radar, right? Like, you think of however long the long list is now for countries that are trying to get their minds around what their lineups are going to look like for the Olympics and how great it is that NHLers will be back at the winter games this February. But then at some point before the end of the calendar year, because we're expecting kind of early January when the full rosters will be announced. Like, it's not like they're sitting down right after Christmas and going, okay, we should start to whittle down our list here. that's going to start even sooner. When you think about it's not so much you've got three months to make a good impression. You maybe have what, the first five, six weeks of the season.

Otherwise, the cuts internally in terms of trying to get those numbers down are going to begin. So there is really no time to waste for players in a position like a Nick Suzuki around the league. Do you believe in recency bias? Kind of. Like I feel we've entered that. Like we went through that all in four nations, trying to figure out roster decisions. a year ago. See, I, how many, like, you guys all, like,

you guys believe in recency bias? I really believe in recency bias. And there's all this talk about, there's all this talk about got to start well, and you have to start well, because the competition is going to be fierce, but cutting down the roster, I think if there's a player who's,

there's going to be somebody out there who has a bad first month, and they don't have to name the team until the end of December, who's going to be incredible, last six weeks before that, and you're going to tell me because they had a bad first month, they're not going to be on the Olympic team? No, I don't buy that. So my advice to everybody is take advantage of recency bias, start terribly, and then get hot. That's like your career path, I'm still waiting to get hot. I'm still waiting. Eventually it's going to happen. Eventually, it's

going to happen. You know, we can talk about Leaves for a sec, Matthews? Of course, yeah. So, Matthews, first of all, I think he's going to have a monster year. Yeah. I do. I think he is eager to show because there's all this talk with Marner gone, who's going to get him the pot? Is he going to be able to

score as much? How about the countdown on how much time is left to ask the Mitch questions, right? He was like, two weeks. I love that. I love that. We're at two weeks. Everyone get their questions in. It's like dating. If it doesn't work out, you've got to move on. Everything goes back to dating.

It totally is. I loved it. I thought it was great. And I also thought it was a captain thing to do. Like, it should be him who says that. You guys got two weeks and then we're done with this. I liked it. Interesting counterpoint.

One person said to me that the only thing they don't like, one of the things they're talking about about Matthew's carrying the puck a lot. And he said that the only thing he doesn't. doesn't like about that is that makes Matthews more of a target. You can legally hit them and the league's not like it was when the 80s, when everybody was ragdolling everybody else to the ice. But when you have the puck, you are allowed to have more contact. And he said that's the only thing he doesn't like about that is it gives people more of a license to hit them or make contact with him. It's the only

thing he doesn't like about that. Now Matthew says he's healthy. We know he's battled some injuries before. He said that's the one, like, Marner was very elusive. He was very good at avoiding that stuff. Matthew's bigger, stronger guy. That was the only thing he

wasn't crazy about that. And he said that that's one of the things he's going to be watching early in the season. Does Matthews take more contact because he's carrying the puck and do the Maple Leafs like the look of that? Right, because Marner was a great transporter. So he carried the puck lots.

I think Matthew Nyes can be that in a lot of situations. He continues to get more comfortable, but you can tell why there's such an emphasis on, okay, who's the third guy on that line? Like Barubei has said, what was great about the Marner Matthews combination is that give-and-go ability that they had kind of always knowing where each other were on the ice.

So Matthews could get rid of it and kind of find an area to get lost in and Marner could find them. Like you've got to rekindle all that. But I'm totally with you this idea of, well, there's a lot of pressure on him because now, you know, the safety net, the safety blanket of Mitch Marner isn't there anymore. The best players always find a way to figure things out.

Like this guy won a heart trophy. He scored 60 goals. He scored 69 goals. As great as that combination and as lethal as it was, for a lot of years. Now that that's away from him, maybe it doesn't happen the first three games of the year. It takes a little bit of time.

But I'm with you. He says he's feeling much better. By all accounts, he looks great coming out of training camp and the beginning of the preseason. The best guys always find a way to have an impact and to leave a mark on games over the course of his season. I think it's going to be the exact same. Did you guys all watch that Michael Jordan documentary, the great one?

Have you read the bald truth? Yeah. You know the line he has, and I took that personally, which is now memed everywhere in the world. I don't know if Matthews would ever admit it, but I think he would be like, I take that personally that people don't think I can score as much without him. I mean, we'll find the proof 82 games from now and the playoffs from now. But I think he would use that as a huge motivator that people don't think he can score as much in this new world. And I'm curious to see how it all goes. It's time now for the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC.

A couple of the names here. Everyone's wanting about Mason McTavish. I think talks, but I don't think a ton of movement. Luke Hughes talks. I don't think a ton of movement. Luke Evangelista talks, but I'm not sure there's been a ton of movement. That pod Coles an extension that put him at 2.95 the other day for the Oilers. Even though it takes effect a year from now,

it's probably better for Evangelista than it is for the Predators in terms of a comp. But, you know, they've been pretty far apart. I think the other thing that I wanted to just double check on, you were asking about Vasilevsky. He's not been playing or practicing. Someone just said to me, if he's not only worry if he's not playing by the end of, training camp like that looks like a management he plays a billion games just no need to burn

them out now so we'll keep an eye on that the other thing i wanted to mention about is um you know Alex Petrangelo who we talked a lot about last summer uh he initially it looked like he was never going to play again and then he kind of left it open when he met with the media the other day so i'm not expecting him to play again although i'm not expecting him to play again although I hope I'm wrong. I'd love to see Petrangelo Plagin. He's one of my favorite players to watch. But one of the things that is new in the new CBA is the playoff cap, right?

Yeah. So if he was to play, Vegas would be in a lot of trouble. And also, if they don't, like the only way you can get a full salary now in the playoffs is if you declare a player out for the year. So the new rule is if the only relief you can get If a player isn't out for the year is basically about $4 million Up to $4 million and Petrangelo makes more than that So I asked how do you declare that a player isn't going to play again Like how do you qualify for the full relief

And I got an answer and basically what happens is A team has to apply to the league And submit the medical record and the players association is involved too because the player has to agree, yes, I am out for the year. No player is going to be, you don't want to say,

be told, you're out for the year if they want to come back and play in the playoffs. The player has to agree too. So if you get this, if you apply for this and it's given, then the player isn't eligible for the season, including the playoffs. And as far as I can tell now,

Petrangelo and the Golden Knights haven't applied. for that. So maybe they will, but I wasn't, I asked if it had happened and I was told no. So that's the way this is going to work. I wanted to, after he kind of left the door open, I wanted to check and see how this worked. Okay. So they get the relief now during the regular season, but this is more for the playoffs. This is for the playoff cap. Yeah. The player saying, yes. I'm done for the year. Yeah. Because if he was to come back and say I could play, Vegas would have salary issues. Right. Yeah. Right, right, right.

And when it comes to stuff, like, because we'll get to the thought line here in a little bit, but we have gotten some questions with things kicking up again, Elliot, about all the new rules. And another thing was, what about teams that have buyout, dead cap on that? Does that factor in their playoff salary cap roster? It doesn't get any relief from there. No, that's all part of it. Okay. All right.

Yeah. It's just a brand new world in that sense. And boy, we love the loopholes, but they closed up again for a lot of them. Is there anything like, I just wonder. You say the first week of the preseason is often for the young players, the veterans get going week two, just in terms of some of the younger names out there. Like Brady Martin had a nice game for Nashville. Gabe Perrault seems to be making, we've got a Rangers fan here.

It seems to be making a good first impression there. Flames have a lot of kids. James Flames was running the power play last night against Seattle, which was exciting to watch. The Flames fans are already handing him the keys to the power play. Yes, the whole city. Is there anything in terms of what you're here? hearing about some players younger that may still be junior eligible. Next week.

Next week. I'm not. Anything yet. Yeah, I mean, last night of the Devils fans were really happy with one, really happy with one of their young defensemen. Next week. Next week. This week is for the kids.

Next week is for the adults. No, yeah. Next week is for the veterans. Like this, then we'll see, you know, around Toronto, like the question you get asked all the time is, do you think Easton Cowan will make the team? And I always say next week, let's see where everybody is next week. Okay, welcome back.

Time now for the thought line, which is presented by Doberhockey. Doberhockey.com for 20 years, your trusted source for player rankings, line combo, stat reports, and the fantasy hockey guide that Sirius, Gene, PM's trust. Back to our live show from Charlottetown. So the thought line we've got, for those that aren't aware, listeners, send in questions, they leave voicemails. This is where we're asking for audience participation. Yes. So we'll begin with some that we got written in initially that give you some time to maybe formulate a question and kind of get a sense of how the flow of it. And then we'll turn it over to the audience here. And if anyone would like to come out and ask

a question, we've got a mic and a podium up there for you to do so. All right. We will begin Elliot with Will in St. Catharines, okay? Okay. Hi, gang, long-time listener and love the pod. Very glad to hear you guys are back on the airwaves. Thank you, Will. While I was listening to the pod on Monday, my fiancé, overheard your discussion about Tiny Ontario

and the lecture that you gave poor Kyle about not knowing enough about the place he asked about. Elliot, you then went on to list a few NHL places. Oh, and I was wrong. I heard about this. Yes. Or from Simcoe County, or so you thought. That's right.

I was wrong. These players were actually from the town of Simcoe, which is located in Norfolk County. Being from Simcoe herself, she insisted that I write in to point out your error and to get Kyle the apology he deserves. First of all, Kyle is not getting an apology. He was still wrong. When you ask someone a trivia question, you should know the answer, right? Am I right? He didn't.

Because I didn't ask a trivia question. Even the audience agrees with me. Yes, but going back to when I ask you if you've ever been to Charlottetown before, that was just the question. Have you been to Tiny Ontario before? And you took it as trivia. Well, it kind of was. It is a trivia question. It's a question.

What is the answer to the question? Right. Only you would know that. I'm not packing down on this. Fine. All right. Nick from Denton, Texas. Well, did Will say what his name of his fiancé was?

Did he include that? Okay, so I would just like to say to Will's mystery fiance that I'm really sorry I butchered that and you weren't the only one who complained about my butcher job for Tiny Ontario. Yes, Griffin Porter, who curates our thought line submissions for us each and every week, he said he thinks that about every person from Simcoe County wrote in to say you were wrong.

So basically what I've learned is next. year's sponsorship event should not be held in Simcoe County. Unless, you know, Sportsnet wants a different host, which I have to confess, is always possible. Okay. All right. So this actually ties into what we were talking about a bit earlier, Elliot. Nick from Denton, Texas. Hello to the 32 Thoughts Regiment.

Did you ever see the movie The Iron Claw? Yes. So the Von Erics were from Denton, Texas. Oh, good. That's a great movie. If you've never seen it, the Iron Claw is a great movie. Yes, that's good trivia. You knew the answer.

That's good, Elliot. My question is about contracts, Nick Wrights. Does the NHLPA have to approve all contracts players sign? I asked because Elliot has been saying that Connor McDavid will sign for less than expected. However, is it really in the best interests of the players, which the union advocates for, if McDavid signs a deal like three times 12 or something similar to what Leon Drys, signed. I could see the players' union being not happy if the far and away

best player in the league takes a deal significantly below his value, because that would hurt the other players. Keep up the great work. You know, Nick, this is a great question and it's a great philosophical question because I think in a vacuum, in

just a general philosophical sense, you are right. And I remember when I was very young in my career, one of, I was doing radio one of the veterans of the radio business actually said to me at one time you have an obligation whenever you sign something to try and do something that elevates everybody and unions obviously feel very strong about that and sports unions and players are very much like that

so in a short-term answer Nick your answer is correct there's two things I say about this number one, everybody's situation is different. There are times people say, look, for this reason, I'm happy here. The quality of life is good. I do things, I'm going to do things a little bit different and people better understand that. Like I always say to people, you've got to do what you think is right for yourself and your family. Like, especially if there's something that's right for your family, I'm never going to pass judgment. But the second thing, and this is the complication for the NHL is there's a salary cap in the NHL. And technically the players get 50% of revenues, right?

So the way it works is every dollar a player takes, one player takes, is another dollar another player can't get. And the thing is, you know, you can say about, there's different ways you can look at this. You can say about Connor McDavid, if he signs a deal that's less than he could, you could say, oh, well, he's set a bar, he's blocking others. For reasons we talked about earlier about negotiation, I don't believe that. Number two, I think that if he signs for a bit less, it's more others can get a few more dollars under a salary cap. And three, and I think this is the most important thing.

McDavid, if he signs for a number that completely handicaps the Oilers, then people are going to say, well, you wanted to win and they can't build a team with all the other contracts there. Not that they're his fault. So I look at it as it's in a salary cap world, it's different. It's one dollar you take is a dollar that somebody else can't take. And secondly, if someone's happy with the contract they signed, that's their business. And it's up to you to say, hey, he did that for this reasons. I'd like to do this for this reasons. Very good.

All right. So up next, it's a voicemail from Jordan from Charlottesville, Virginia. not Charlottetown. Now, we won't be able to play the voicemail, but I will tell you what he wrote in or called in to say, Elliot. So Jordan grew up a Flyers fan. Okay.

And with the passing of Bernie Perraunt, had him wondering, has anyone else had multiple shutouts in Stanley Cup clinching games like Perraunt did in 1974 and 1975? That's a great question. The one thing that, the first thing I jumped into my head

is I believe the only person who I thought of Frank McCool in the 40s because he's the only goalie to have three shutouts in one Stanley Cup final. I think he had three in a row. And the only reason I remember that is that his granddaughter Tara McCool used to be on air at Rogers and Calgary.

And yes, she was very proud that her grandfather had that record. Off the top of my head, I'm going to say the only guy I could think of because he had one absolutely epic playoff run that's the record for the Stanley Cup playoffs goals against average 0.62 Terry Sawchuk surprisingly no is there someone who's done it there's two people that have done it yes so Perron is one sorry two people other than Perron three total thank you you don't even know the answer to the trivia question I do I do I've got it right here you've got it right

front of you and you can't even phrase it properly. I guess we're, sorry, I was saying too because I'm going, we're not trying, Perron, because we know he did it. What error are we talking about here? Someone recently, someone a long time ago. Well, recently, someone who's won multiple Stanley Cups recently,

did Vasilevsky do it? Yes. Okay. He's the one. Also happened to be in back-to-back years like Yes. That's amazing. One-0-0-0. And what error are we talking about?

about for the other one. We're going back to the 20s. The 20s. Yes. I assume we're not talking about the 20-20s. No, that's Vasilewski. The 1920s. Any guesses out here?

Anyone have a... No. Okay. Okay. So we're going back to the 20s. The goalies in the 20s would have to be... Don't give me a hint yet. Okay. So the goalies I would think about from the 20s, George Vezna.

George Haynesworth No Skip the Georges Skip the Georges George is not correct The only other guy I can really think of from that age

I think But I think he only won one Clint Benedict It's right Yes But he won one with Montreal One with Ottawa That was the one I remembered Ottawa

I didn't remember He is technically He is technically the first goalie to wear a mask Yes. Yeah. So Jacques Plont was the guy who really made it permanent, but Clint Benedict was the first one to make it. Yeah, it's very good.

You know what? That's not bad, if I may say so myself. No, you've had much tougher goals at the trivia questions, though I appreciate your sport every time. Thanks a lot, Jordan. That's a good question. All right. I appreciate any question that by accident makes me look, not bad.

All right, we got one more here from our list of previously submitted ones and then we'll open it up to the audience. So Nate from Minnesota, hello, Elliot, Kyle, and Dom. I am an equipment manager for a juniors team here in Minnesota. I heard you guys talking about kids and juniors watching movies on the bus. I can confirm that they still watch movies like Talladega Nights. Our coach has two DVD cases full of movies. We have watched Anchorman, old school, Top Gun, Miracle, Slapshot, and even the best of Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live. Love the pod. That is outstanding.

Thank you, Nate, and the coaches for ensuring today's youth are educated on an era when movies were still worth consuming, at least the comedy ones. Now, have you ever seen Chris Farley's Chippendale skit on Saturday Night Live? Yes, that one I have. If you have never seen that, when this is over, go on to your phone or whatever device you're using and go watch the Chippendale skit with Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze. That is my favorite Saturday Night Live skit ever. It is incredible. I remember the first time I saw that, I believe I was still in university,

and I cried laughing for about 25 minutes. It is incredible, incredible stuff. Yeah, he was excellent. People say Tommy Boy was Chris Farley's best work? No, the Chippendale skit was Chris Farley's best work. Okay. So good. All right.

Yeah, I wanted to throw that in there because it's good to hear. It's good to hear. It reaffirms my faith in today's youth. Yes, very good. Okay, that was the thought line presented by Dober Hockey Reminder, 1833-3-3-1-3-1-3-2. If you would like to leave a voicemail, or you can email us at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca.

One more break. It's 32 Thoughts, the podcast, continues. All right. Now, we want to open up to the audience here in front of us. So anybody, please, come on up, sir. Come on up here. I like that. There was no waiting. Somebody had their hand up right away.

Okay. First of all, please introduce yourself. Jerry Aloise. Okay. Work for ESO. Nice. In our hockey program. Two-parter.

Okay. First part is Toronto fans are salivating at the potential of Connor McDavid coming to Toronto. Has there ever been such a case in history in the NHL where two top players were on the same team, like one, two almost. You can argue that. And then the second part is, if that happened, how does that work in Toronto in terms of lineups and power plays and ice time and all that? mess good question so has it happened before

I mean well think about Mario Yager Mario Yager I'd even say like Crosby Malkin there was a time where they were

one two in the world and they were winning or up there I mean Gretzky Messier Gretzky Messier I mean Gretzky Curry

I mean there were so many those I mean and then you would go back into like you know in Montreal had the exclusive to you had Richard and Bellevaux

like that's a a long time ago, but... We had four or five of the best. Colin McKita. What's that? So it can work. First of all, like, I honestly believe this. Like, let's just say for argument's sake that McDavid and Matthews ended up on the same team.

They would make it work. Right. You know, I really believe that, that if you want to win, you find ways to make it work. And I'm sure that at ESO, there are people who are. great at their jobs, and they're used to being kind of the leaders, but if you want to be successful, you make it work. And I just think that, especially if it was, like, boy, people in, talking about driving off the road. People in Alberta are going to be Northern Alberta are going to be driving off the road listening to this conversation. They're going to be boycotting

ESO in Northern Alberta. But, you know, it's, I just think, especially if they, neither one had won it by that time. You make it work. But I'll say this. I think McDavid, I have said this and until proven wrong, I think McDavid's going to resign in Edmonton, just not for term. Now, did you have a second question? No, that was the second question. And I agree with you as well. Okay. All right. Thank you for the question. Just make sure you've got no travel to Northern Alberta booked anytime soon. That McDavid talks going to make them crazy. Come on up. Hi. Terry. Terry? Terry. Nice to meet you guys.

Nice to meet you and Terry. Who are you representing here? SDI. Okay. Agency we work with Rogers, NHL. Probably a few people in the room would know us. Okay. Well, nice to meet you.

Maybe you guys have tripped across this summer, Four Nations, that kind of stuff. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, happy to be here. This question's actually on behalf of my family. Okay. It's mortified that only I get to be here because I'm hockey mom and I have two adult hockey goals. Wait a second.

Are they on FaceTime right now? No, they're not. I should have, though. Oh, okay, okay. Well, you know what, Terry, like this shows that you are the backbook. of the family because you're here and they're not, right? So that is an okay, all right? You are the most deserving member.

Yeah, family jealousy is a good thing. It's very good. Right? There's love jealousy. There are equals. Okay, so this is their question. What are your thoughts on Jonathan Tave's return to Winnipeg following his extended health leave?

His off-ice contribution is measurable, but what are their thoughts on reasonable expectations for his on ice? That's a great question. It's a very smart question. My guess is the Jonathan Taze we see in game 40 and the back half of the season is going to be vastly better than the Jonathan Taze we see from game zero to 39. People want to see him do well. People want to see him.

Like, you know, people like a comeback story. They do. I just, I am trying to be reasonable with my expectations. Yeah. So you're giving him an A for effort for trying regardless of outcomes. You know, the easy, the easy thing to do would be. just to say, look at everything I've accomplished and right off into the sunset. Like, this, this is harder.

Yeah. He's got, he's got nothing to prove to anyone except maybe himself. Um, I, I admire the fact that he's, he's getting back in there. I really do. Because it's tough to go out on your own terms, right? Especially in a sport like anything professionally at that level when there's a business aspect to it all. So the fact that he's been able to go through what he needed to do to get his mind and body right

again and decide I'd like to. come back and go out on my own terms. Like there's something really admirable about that. So, yeah, I think we're wishing I'm nothing but the best, which is great. Thank you. Thank you, Terry. Hey, guys, I'm Dean Moore from Mosaic. We're in very similar agency.

Yes, Dean and I met, we met on the street earlier. Really? Yeah, we both have Lithuanian roots. Did Kyle ask for change while you was out there with you? No, I did ask where the best coffee was, but fellow Lithuanian with 13 characters in our last name. Yes, we've got to stick together. Nice. My friends and I stay together through fantasy hockey,

so this is selfishly looking ahead to my fantasy draft. What's one team that was outside of the playoff picture that you think is going to take the next step and make it in? Rangers. And I'm not just saying that because there's a Ranger fan here. As a matter of fact, I usually do the reverse when they're fans of teams here. But, no, I think the Rangers will be better. a lot better. So Shasturkin,

third or fourth round? What, what, like, what, how much do goalies, are goalies heavily weighted in your pool? Heavy weighted, yeah. Then you should, like, then, are you allowed to take a lot of goalies, or is there, is there a cap? There's a cap at four, but.

If you, if you, if you, if you draft four, like, I'll tell you, I had a, I had a guy, we had to change a pool in university because of this. We had weighted goalies so heavily that we had a guy who took four goalies, first four rounds declobbered us. So if goalies are weighted that heavily, you should look at it.

If I took four goalies in the first four rounds, I'd be laughed out of the league. The question is not about if you're laughed out of the league. The question is, do you win? That's true. That's true. They can laugh in October. Will you be laughing in April? That's what you have to look at.

Laughing all the way to the bank. Thank you guys. You have a team there? I would say Vancouver. Vancouver is my pick to get back in. I think they're going to, yeah. About everything that could go wrong did there a year ago. Thanks, Tom. And I think they'll be much better this year for a whole of those reasons.

Something will be, yes, I think he'll be better. Like, yeah, it was a struggle last year, as we know, all across the board. Barring some decent health along the way, they'll be back in the mix. Great. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Dean. Kyle pandering to connect social media and Dom. You had a question?

Yeah, I do. Okay. Your name, please? George from Toronto. Nice to meet you. And George, who are you here representing? JP Wise was Canadian whiskey. Oh, nice.

Nice to meet you. Yeah, my question is, would you make of the fact the Crosby trade rumors just don't die despite the fact that he keeps coming out and saying, I want to finish my career in Pittsburgh, but these rumors keep swirling out there? That's Kyle's fault. That's like the media's fault.

I just think, honestly, I just think it's a normal thing. Like there's 31 teams in the NHL this year saying we want to get better, right? They're not all going to make the playoffs and not all of them are going to achieve that. But there's only one team basically coming into the season saying, you know, we're not in it to get better this year. And that's Pittsburgh. And I think people look at that and they're like, how he's so competitive,

he cares so much, how can he tolerate that? And I think there's people in his orbit who kind of admit that all these years without seeing Crosby in the playoffs, it's bad for hockey and it's bad for him. And they say to him, like, Sid, I'm sure there's his friends too saying Sid. Mark Andre Fleury. Yeah, Mark Andre Fleury. You got to go to the playoffs. You got to go somewhere to go to the playoffs. So I think, and in media, just because we like to talk about stuff like this, I think that's where it all comes from.

And, you know, especially when we saw him last year at the Four Nations and the way we will see him this year at the Olympics, at the four nations last year with the, he was so good. And all of those players on the Canadian team who went in there, they were in awe of him. They spoke about him as like he's like a king, which he is. And I think that seeing him play there, it reminded us of what it would be like to see him play in the playoffs. So I think there's a lot of it, and obviously the Penguins fans don't like this, but a lot of it honestly is a wish that we see him somewhere in the postseason. I really think that has a lot to do with it. I think everybody outside of Pittsburgh or Penguins Nation is trying to will it into his head

if they're not good enough this year. That's what I think it is. Yeah, and I, because we just never, there's never been the situation before in his career, right? The Penguins have never been in this state of full-on rebuild since he first came into the league. And where he's at contractually, where he's at his age, how many years he's logged already. And we hope we still got a number of years left to watch him. But you know he's on the backside of things now later into his 30s. All of that has kind of created this perfect storm of, okay, this player is still at an incredibly high level.

That's where he belongs. And I think the biggest driver is the people around him. Like that's never been part of the equation until the last. year and a bit when you kind of started to read the tea leaves in terms of where the Penguins organization was headed. He is so staunchly loyal, but it feels like the best thing for the Penguins right now when you really think about it and what kind of return, even if it's for a couple years of Sidney Crosby, you could command for a team that's trying to accrue assets and get better down the road. I think one of the best things

that could happen for the organization is if there is a change there, as hard as it would be, a guy that is so, so, so locked into routine, like the drive from the rink, everything about being in Pittsburgh, the game day experience for him, like everything's the same. It's all like clockwork. So I imagine there may be a bit of resistance to now doing something different if he ever ended up in a new spot. But I think there's a lot of reasons why for the first time since Sidney Crosby came into the NHL, a move would make a lot of sense. and that's driving, I think, a lot of this conversation, George. I think the biggest question I have is that the penguins are in the process of being sold.

We'll see when that happens. I could see a new owner being really nervous about going in there, and one of the first things they do is Sidney Crosby gets traded. Like, I would understand that. If I was to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, I would be nervous about that, even though it might, I can understand it. I'm sorry, what's your first name again? George.

George, but just imagine. Sidney Crosby in the playoffs with the Montreal Canadiens or the Colorado Avalanche, just think how many more people would be watching Wiser's commercials. I like it. I'm going to hold you to that. Or consuming. Thank you. Thanks, George.

Anthony's got a pitch deck for you. Hi, what's your name? Brody O'Keefe. Oh, Brody, we met on the way in. Yeah, from Tourism, Prince Everd Island. Welcome to Prince Overd Island. Thanks for having us, Brody. Welcome to everyone here.

Thanks for having us. Two questions. First one, Patrick Lone's season in Montreal. What do you think we can expect from him this year? Second question, how many island NHL hockey players can use name? Oh, wow. Oh, boy. Can I name?

I know there's, I believe there's 35 total that have played in the NHL. Brad Richards, we've got Noah Dobson, we've got Gerard Gallant, we've got Dave Cameron, Alma Catam, Brandon Gormley Doing very nicely Oh boy Kennedy Forbes

Forbes Kennedy Yeah Who else you got We're nowhere close to 35 I figured if you actually knew there were 35 You would know the names That doesn't add up all Like I can know the number

Like 35 unique names Is a lot harder to remember Who's the biggest one we're missing Like who would Who would you be most insulted If we didn't name? name them. Well, you got Forby, who's a legend here.

Yeah, Forbes. I was waiting for that, but I'm a little older than Kyle. John Shabbat. Adam McQuade. Adam, oh, boy, that's a bad miss. Sorry, Stanley Cup. That's a bad miss. Like, Kyle's like 12.

He doesn't know any of these guys. I think I've named more names than you have. You did. You were going. I didn't want to stop you. Thank you. I was waiting for Forbes, Candy, because I knew if we didn't name him, we would get thrown off the island.

Okay, Adam McQuade's a bad miss. Anybody else were really missing? The McMillan Brothers. Right. Okay. Billy and Bobby. Did Brett Galand play in the NHL? I know he was within, he played pro hockey.

Did he play an NHL game? That's good enough. Okay. Pro hockey is, do you make pro hockey? You're a good player. Of course, of course. So I know there were like a number of names within the 35 that only played one or two games. What do you think about Patrick Lainey?

I think last year he what skated twice I think before training camp and then of course he gets hurt and misses all that time so the fact that he scored as often as he did for a guy that wasn't moving well around the ice obviously I think he stayed in Montreal most of the summer worked out with a lot of the guys there so that completely changes the whole thought process and mindset and how you feel going into a new year I think there's there was a lot of work done just for him to find joy in the game again. I think the environment in Montreal is suited for him when you think of where that team is going, who the head coach is, all of those things. That's the one big question seemingly around Montreal right now is, okay, who's the number two center? I think there's like a lot of motivation for a guy like Kirby Doc to go, like, I'm that guy, don't worry about it.

And I think a lot of people envision, you know, line there on that line. Ivan Demadov, who, of course, there's a lot of anticipation for after he came over towards the end of last year. I did like the line of line A the other day when someone asked him about, hey, you might get a chance to play with Demadov, and he goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, he gets a chance to play with me. Like, I've played 10 years in the league here. I love that.

So I think for a lot of reasons, the fact that he had a full offseason and to just be training like a normal player again after everything he'd gone through the last couple of years, that's created just a runway of a much greater likelihood of a great start. Like, it was impressive what he did, you know, considering. everything last year when he did finally get healthy again, it just feels like everything's lining up to be an even better year for him. So I think you're going to see a much more impactful Patrick Leine. I mean, will you go through a stretch again where it was like, what was that stretch in December, where it was, I mean, every game there he was on the flank on the power play and he was pounding him in.

Maybe that doesn't happen, but I think he's going to have a lot bigger impact than he did a year ago. You know, I don't think there's a player in the league, honestly, that is more impacted by scoring than him. Like his whole, it's almost like his whole mood and his whole feeling is determined by scoring. Like even Matthews has been a 60 goal score. I don't think he's quite like that. I think Lani is a guy, like his value comes a lot for that. And I found when he's scoring, his whole game is there. When he's not scoring, it's almost like he feels like he's not making as much of an impact and his whole game suffers. So I just think it comes down to, does he get out and score? early, because if he is, he'll be like a rocket, and if he doesn't score early, that's when I get concerned for him because his confidence seems to, as confidence for what he can do besides scoring seems to drop when he's not scoring. Thank you. Thank you.

Adam McQuaid, that bothers me that I missed out. All right. I saw you in the gym. You know, I got to tell you, like, this is. You were lifting a lot of weight. So, sorry, what's that? How much? We were lifting a lot of weight, too.

How much? I love you. You're my favorite guest. Okay, what's your name? I'm Sean, and I work at Boston Pizza. Hey, Sean, nice to meet you. So I got to tell you, so, um, Sean, I was doing an exercise. Like, when you sit a lot, they tell it, and you try, yeah, you have to loosen up your hips.

So my buddy told me that you have to do this thing where you kind of get into like a kind of a squat position, your butt just off the floor. And can you hold my mic for a sec? And you hold like your thumbs up like this and move around. And I was like, that sounds ridiculous. Who, what kind of idiot would do that? And Sean was in the gym and he was doing it. And I got to tell you, it looks not bad.

Like, you know, Sean, like you're in good shape. You convinced me that this exercise is not insane. We'll do some at the bar later. All right. Okay. I was very impressed that you were right in the gym too. Thank you. I wanted to look muscular.

for the audience, not flimsy like Kyle. What's up, Big Man? My question is, we've seen like real changes in the CFL, real changes in the MLB. We've seen kind of Adam Silver in the NBA diminishing the brand a tiny bit. What are like one or two hot button issues on Gary Bettman's desk, do you think, for this season?

Well, I will say this. A lot of his hot button stuff, he just got done in the CBA. Like, he hated all these loopholes. and he made it harder for everybody to cheat around them, which I'm very disappointed in him about. But, you know, I understand why he did that. We joke that it's made it harder to violate the salary cap now, which he wanted to do.

But I'll tell you with this, like, so when he went into the Hockey Hall of Fame a few years ago, we had him on the pod, and I asked him three questions about the playoffs. Like, I want to see 20 teams in the playoffs. I think it's just better. More playoff games. We love playoff games. We'll be better for television. I have this vision of the top six teams in each conference go in and 10 goes to seven, nine goes to eight in each conference. You play them on back-to-back nights. The higher-seated team

gets omice in both games, and it's two games, and it's not even total goals. If one team wins, the first game, then the other team has to win the second game. And if they split, then you play sudden death overtime. The next goal puts you into the next round. So if you tie the first game, you only play 60 minutes, then whoever wins the second game goes advanced. If you have two ties and you play overtime. Like, I think this is a great idea. It might be the smartest thing I've ever come up with in my life. He thinks it's stupid and he's totally against it. You know what I think about your idea? What's that? Know what I think about your idea?

What? I wish people could see this right now. He just gave the thumbs up exercise. But it was funny because we did the interview and I asked him three questions about it. And I really do like talking to the commissioner when he's aggravated in a fun way about your questions because he looked at me and he finally said,

would you stop asking me about this? It's not going to happen. And he feels very strongly that the NHL regular season is hard and it should be hard and the fact that 16 teams get in it's a reward and the funniest thing about this was a couple years ago and I knew this was going to happen at the eastern conference the 9th and 10th teams I think were the Islanders in Columbus and they missed the playoffs by 20 points and I said to I think it was either BXA or Amber probably both when we see the commissioner at the Stanley Cup final he's going to point out that those

teams missed the playoffs by a long shot and that's why we don't have an expanded playoffs and sure he did he got up there and he mentioned it and we were all laughing so if there's one thing i would like to see i would love to see more teams in the playoffs but he is dead set against it he believes very strongly in so when i lived in ottawa i had uh season tickets to the p w hl the ottawa charge and one of the cool things being in the building for is they've got that jail break rule where if you short-handed, your penalized player comes out of the box. I like that, too. That's good.

And you and, yes, you and Merrick, like, you had talked about that, right? The idea of, like, you score short-handed, that should be considered killing the penalty. It's a great moment when you're in the building for something like that because you're celebrating the goal and then you see the player come out of the box and they would kind of spotlight them going on at the same time. I would love to see that in the NHL. I think that would be a cool in terms of rule changes, a neat wrinkle to... Is there anything you like that?

Mike, you want to see? I am one of the leave fans. Probably like one to eight in the playoffs. We've seen Florida enough in Tampa. You don't want to see Florida anymore, right? Oh, gosh. Thank you. All right.

Thanks very much for the question. Anybody else will take one or two more if anyone else still has one? No, we're good. Okay, excellent. Thanks very much. I've got to say, I'm impressed. A lot of audiences, people are pretty shy. You guys were not shy.

I like that. Yes, this was great. Let's have a great couple of days here. I know we got dinner coming up in a little bit. We're getting shuttled out to it. So, yeah, thank you so much for hanging out here and listen to us blabble on for about an hour. And, yeah, we'll see everybody in a bit at dinner.

And looking forward to meeting everybody here over the next few days. Thanks, everyone. Take care.