32 Thoughts: The Podcast - What A Week!

Episode Date: February 11, 2022

It was a crazy busy week in hockey! Jeff and Elliotte kick things off with an apology (00:15) before getting into some rapid-fire thoughts from Elliotte’s latest blog -- Tyler Toffoli (3:25), Christian Dvorak (4:15), Rick Bowness (4:50), Jack Eichel’s return (7:00), Gina Kingsbury and Theresa Feaster (10:20), Tomas Hertl (11:10), Pavel Zacha (13:20), Nick Paul (14:40), and Vitali Kravtsov (16:10).They also get into the changes in Edmonton (18:00) and Montreal (31:50), discuss the hiring of Cammi Granato in Vancouver (41:00), the situation in Arizona (42:50), and why the PHFPA parted ways with Alex Sinatra (48:45).Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryMusic Outro: BUD - NowhereListen to more music from BUD on SpotifyThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Anheuser-Busch, Montreal Canadiens, San Jose Sharks, Sportsnet and WGN 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.

I do love sneaky D's so much. Oh, the nachos are great. Welcome once again to 32 thoughts presented by the all new GMC AT4 lineup and Elliot, we will start today's podcast with a, a statement of remorse. Where would you like to begin? Well, first of all, we blew it on the last podcast and we appreciate, no, no, no. You are taking responsibility for this too. I'm taking a lot of it, but you're taking some of it.

You know, we really appreciate the fact that all of you pay attention, that you listen. And considering Jeff and I have droned on and on about one boring topic after another, we appreciate all of your attention to it. Yes, I was wrong. I said that Buffalo beat Anaheim in the game with the Zegers flip over the net. And I don't know what I was thinking. It was completely moronic and it was terrible.

And I was wrong. I was flat out wrong. I am taking 75% of the blame. And I think I'm being overly generous because you asked a question without even knowing the answer. And that is horrible. Like, I hate people who ask trivia questions or things like that and don't know the answer. And Amal, you didn't fact check it.

Although, you know, I'd love to blame Amal, but he's only taking 1% of the blame on this one for not fact checking. Merrick, you only have to take 24% of the blame. And I think that shows what a great human I am, because I think you should take at least 50. Well, first of all, like many things, you missed the whole point. The whole point of that little exercise about Trevor Zegers and Sonny Milano in that play, my point was, does anyone really even remember the score of the game? No.

All they remember was that play. even remember the score of the game no all they remember was that play so the whole episode with you being wrong slash me being wrong slash why am i wrong if all i did was ask a question to somehow we've dragged amal into this as well somehow he's become a fact checker the whole point of the story is that no one remembers really and you proved it because you will always remember that zgris milano play but you will not remember the score of the game or who won and you proved it because you will always remember that Zegers Milano play, but you will not remember the score of the game or who won. And you proved it by answering incorrectly. Man, I am playing chess in so many different dimensions here with you right now. And with this one question, your head right now, Elliot, is probably spinning like a top.

No, Kramer, my head is not spinning like a top. I'm just saying that if you ask a question you've got to know the answer you can't say that it's some ninth level three-dimensional chess move with the audience they know i saw all your tweets in that instance i didn't need to know the answer we're talking about this too long yes cue the the patsy klein i'm sorry music 75 my fault 24 your fault all right should be 50 one percent almost fault jeez uh no thanks man when you know what hits the fan i run for cover and point fingers you're taking all of it we're gonna get in all the big topics in the last couple of days and man were there ever some huge ones we're going to get to montreal we're going to get to edmonton we're going to get to asu but first i'm going to throw out here and listen we are going to get to this feature properly one of these days don't worry

i'm going to throw out some names that you mentioned in your latest blog available at sportsnet.ca if you can expound on them and expand on them a little bit here let's start with tyler toffoli go i think that he's very high on calgary's radar it makes a lot of sense they're looking for scoring they know them it fits a lot of things the other thing though is i had a couple people reach out to me and say look you talked about the kings and what rob blake said to you they're looking for a lefty and they're looking for a scorer. They know Tyler Toffoli. They can handle his extra year.

They've got a lot of cap flexibility. You know, I just had some people say to me, you know, it's much logic as it is actual intel, but there are things about that that make sense. And that would be a great family setup as well. Going back to Los Angeles, that's probably not exactly a secret either. know also on that show when we talked about tyler toffoli we also talked about christian dvorak just because i have that dumb junior hockey brand i said hey christian dvorak how about a fit in calgary reunited with his old london knights junior line mate matthew kachuk but christian dvorak's name is out there too look he's had a nightmare of a year just been a horrible nightmare year for him.

But I think everybody recognizes he's a better player than he gets credit for this year. And I think there's some teams in the West in particular that have looked at him and are interested in him and are kind of going up and down. On their list of people to acquire, he's on it. I don't have specifics yet, but I think he's definitely got some teams out there looking at him.

Rick Bonas, head coach, Dallas Stars. So, you know, after the wildness the last couple of days, you know, after Dave Tippett, I was talking to someone and I said, who's next? Someone said to me, you know, I think maybe Dallas. And I said, really? You know, I was kind of surprised at that. And I asked around and I heard a couple other people say they think that Dallas was kind of looking around to see what was out there. And I looked into it and the stars really wouldn't say anything, but if they

were going to do anything, they probably would have done it already. They came out of the shoot. They beat Nashville in a really good entertaining game the other night. Yeah. And I think they've decided that they're sticking with Rick bonus for now. We'll see where everything goes at the end of the season, but I think they at least looked into the possibility. And I think it's just because they've been so inconsistent that they kind of looked into

it. It seems as if right now the Dallas stars seem frozen until the owner can figure out who exactly this team is. And until then, I don't, I don't get the sense that there's going to be any moves. Do you get that same feeling? Well, I just think also that the other issue is, you know, they've got to make some long-term decisions. Like I do think Klingberg is going to get traded potentially sooner rather than later,

but you've also got to make your decision about what you're doing in goal and you've got to make a decision about Joe Pavelski. So there's, there's a lot to unpack there. I think the biggest thing is, is that they've been frustrated by their inconsistency. They think they should be better. You know, I think also the other thing is, I think that team, at least up front, is starting to get turned over to Jason Robertson and Rupe Hintz. Big time.

And what does that mean? I think they've got a lot of big decisions to make. And you know who are due new contracts after this season? We'll start that discussion. Jason Robertson and Rupe Hintz. Funny how that works, eh? John Tortorella, assistant coach?

No, I heard some rumors and I asked him and he laughed and said I'd be the worst assistant coach ever. You know, I actually, I should say, I didn't write this in my notes. I should have. Somebody was saying to me, like, Nikolai Habibulin, goalie coach in Montreal.

I mean, what do you do? Like, do you just reunite all of the ex-Lightning who are going to end up there? But, you know, Habibulin was always very passionate about playing that. Absolutely, he was. Jack Eichel's imminent return. How does Vegas do this?

So Mark Stone doesn't play the other night in Calgary and everybody starts wondering, okay, is this what's going to happen here? And there's a great Twitter feed. It's man games lost NHL. As a matter of fact, the owner and operator of it sent out a note that he's willing to put it up for sale. It's mangamesloss.com because he does it in several different sports.

I've traded DMs with him. You're buying it? No, I'm not. I don't think I'm buying it. You're buying CapFriendly? What are you buying? Are you in the market? No?

Right now. Parkpedia? You know what I'm buying right now? What's that? I'm buying you a new line so your show doesn't keep falling off the stage in the Jeff Merrick show. Yeah, that's pretty bad on Thursday. I apologize. I should apologize for that.

Oh, it happens. Nathan Currier is the name of the person who runs it, and we've traded some DMs before. I think his work is really interesting. But one of the things i think vegas always knew is that injuries are a factor and if you take a look at them this year coming out of the all-star break they were fifth in the league this year in man games lost duty injury and you know they've got obviously eichel there now and they've got alec martinez there now and you know if mark stone does go on ltir it solves all their problems you know he's

at nine and a half million if you put him there you send down a couple of the players who are kind of at the fringe of their roster you can activate eichel when he's ready and martinez when he's ready so i think they always kind of knew that there was a possibility about health could make the decision as opposed to a trade and we'll see. And I know if it happens, people are going to scream bloody murder. But Jeff, as, as far as I'm concerned, it's long gone. Like it's done here.

Oh, that argument is finished. Like to the point of ridicule, like to the point where I want it to happen. I want them to win the Stanley cup. And at the post game celebration, I wanted to show up with an LTIR t-shirt. A shirt that says 10 million over the cap? Yeah, or just says LTIR on it, not so subtly.

You know, the one thing I do believe is that the NHL is trying to at least be more diligent on how much they monitor it. I wrote earlier this year about Shea Weber. And for example, when the Canadians were out West this year, Weber had to see the doctors and they made also Weber go to Montreal one extra time at least to go see the doctors. And okay, you know, are we sure here that this individual can't play? And I think that's one thing that teams have asked for

is more diligent monitoring of it, but he legitimately has a back injury. He's missed 20 games this year stone. And the one thing is, is that, you know, Kelly McCrimmon was very tight lipped about it,

but obviously, you know, you want your people to be healthy, but if you can pull this off, they would do it just like anybody else would try it. Elliot LTIR shirts. Come on. You know that's a hit.

You know that's a hit. I liked last year, 18 million over the cap. Everything he did was great last year. Who's kidding you? On the ice and off the ice, specifically at that post-Stanley Cup winning celebration press conference, which will go down in infamy. Gina Kingsbury, Teresa Feaster. Gina Kingsbury is working for Team Canada at the Olympics.

Teresa Feaster is working for Team USA. You know, we've talked about this a bit. We've seen Vancouver. They added Cami Granato the other night. I don't know whether it's going to be Vancouver or it's going to be elsewhere, but I think there are two people who are on the radar. And as we've talked about,

maybe some of the players who might choose to retire. I think the most interesting one is going to be, you know, Marie-Philippe Poulin. What does she want to do? I got to think there's going to be a ton of interest in her, but I don't necessarily think she's anywhere close to retiring yet. So that's kind of where we are. You can probably throw a Hilary Knight into that mix as well. Yeah.

Hilary Knight, I think is absolutely a name too, for sure. Maybe I'm just biased in favor of mike canadiana but hillary knight's a a great call as well tomas hurdle and the san jose sharks well this was joe will he had a media availability with the san jose reporters uh on thursday he's the acting general manager and uh he just uh said that there had been talks with cra Oster who represents Thomas Hurdle. It sounds like it's still a kind of in the early stages. Like to me, it reads like it's one of those things that what's happened here is I think a bunch of teams around the all-star break and some time off for their teams said, okay, let's start getting some business done. And it sounds to me like Joe Will and Craig Oster had some conversations and basically they said, okay, he wants to stay. We want him to stay.

And now they're going to get down to business. I think the one thing that was interesting about his answer is that, you know, they asked him what happens if you get to the deadline and unsigned and everybody answers this differently. But I thought will's answer was really interesting the one thing we have in common is that tamash loves being a shark and we love having tamash here so now it's finding the way to have that happen you know through negotiation and talking about a next contract for him which we have done but right now is we're engaged uh i think we have Tomas as a big part of our team, and we'd like to keep him. Let's see where we go here.

But I think they know what kind of deal it's going to take, and it's a big deal. And the one thing I wanted to add was I was told that when it comes to the Evander Keene grievance about his contract, that whatever the timeline is going to be, it's going to be at a point where the Sharks are going to be able to prepare for next season. They're going to know what the outcome is going to be well enough in advance to plan for next season. That's in reference then to salary cap ramifications of this grievance.

Yes. So they'll be able to economically plan. They'll have plenty of runway then to plan for next season economically. That's what I was told. I was told that they would have enough runway. Pavel Zaka, interest in the New Jersey Devils forward, who is an RFA with arbitration rights. Yes. And, you know, the thing about Zaka is, you

know, big center, like, you know, people are going to be interested in, and you know, maybe I just haven't been watching Jersey enough, but someone said to me, you know, he's not really a center anymore this year. And I said, really? And then, you know, I looked and, you know, he has been playing a bit on the wing, his face

officer down, like he's a lefty, his shirt is a lefty and his shirt is really good. He's a 54% guy. And I understand that Jack Hughes, you got to learn how to take face offs, right? He's got to learn, you've got to learn the skill. That's a strength thing. That's I'm convinced that's just a strength thing. We see this with kids all the time. I think that's totally right. But I also understand that the devils are committed to the bid. Like, I get that. And so, you know, Zach is not taking many face-offs anymore.

So, you know, one team was saying to me, like, is he a center or a winger? And it may not be what New Jersey thinks. It may be what the other team thinks. And so, I just thought

that was really interesting. Hey, listen, if there are teams that are interested, you want me to go back to my junior hockey nonsense again? Matthew Kachuk and Christian Dvorak.

You know, he played with Jordan Cairo on the Sarnia Sting in the OHL. I'm just saying. Robert Thomas is there. He's going nowhere. Those two are excellent together. Does seem like a kind of St. Louis type of guy, though. Like a big body? Yeah.

100%. Nick Paul played at the Battalion under Stan Butler. No, I'm not going to go that route anymore. Nick Paul, though, with the Ottawa Senators' decision time here, no? Well, it's getting there. And Ottawa's way is to kind of play these out all the way down to the line. If you look at the last couple of years, Matt Duchesne, they waited close to the deadline. They traded him.

Mark Stone was traded literally minutes before the deadline. Eric Carlson was almost traded minutes before the deadline. Eric Carlson was almost traded right before the deadline with Vegas. That one fell apart. And then he was traded, you know, next season to San Jose. There are teams out there definitely interested in him. Why not? I think he's an easy fit in a lot of places. It's, but you know, one team said to me, he goes, you know, respectfully, Nick Paul was a good player. This is not, you know, an $80 million contract. And, you know, he said like, that's the kind of deal that, you know, Ottawa with all their cap room, like that's not a backbreaker.

You know, he's, he finds it really hard to believe that they can't get that contract done. So it was his reaction. Like, we'd love to have Nick Paul, but let's just say like, what are we talking here? Four times three. How hard can that be to get done? Especially when you consider how versatile he is. And with this team is actually a playoff team,

how valuable a player like Nick Paul would be. And though technically he wasn't drafted by the Ottawa senators. He was part of the Jason Spezza trade. Like he's a Senator, like his pro career. He's been an Ottawa Senator fridge. Yeah. Like, I don't know.

I'm I'm with you. I, I kind of scratched my head at this one a little bit. Vitaly Kratsov. Yeah. So I think he's out there, you know, it makes a lot of sense. If the Rangers are going to make a move to include them to interested teams that might want to try them out next year. You know, one of the questions that was being asked is, is he coming back to North America?

And I've been told that he's been telling teams, yes, he plans on coming back to North America. And the other thing too is that, you know, he's going to have to go on waivers. So it's not like, you know, teams are going to be sending him down to the minors. You know, you're going to give him a shot to play. So obviously he's aware of that.

They're aware of that. And he's planning on coming back next year. All right. We're all warmed up of that. They're aware of that. And he's planning on coming back next year. All right. We're all warmed up with that. We'll kick it off. Welcome once again to 32 thoughts, the podcast. We're back to talk about the Habs. We're back to talk about ASU, but up next we're talking about the Oilers. That's next. 32 thoughts returns. That's for sure. I thought, we thought, you know, people thought in the offseason we tried to change, you know, get a little deeper up front, get a little bit bigger, move the puck.

Obviously, we lost, you know, Larson left. We signed Cody Ceci, someone to play safe, play steady. You know, as Jim had said here, it's been up and down like a toilet seat, really. There's stretches where we play pretty good and then we don't play good. And, you know, after December 1st, I think we beat Pittsburgh, I think in the last 20 or 23 games, have we scored the first goal like three times? And now the 1-0s have been coming 2-0. It sort of feels like you're chasing the game.

We've been chasing the game for like two months. Elliot, I know you love that line. That is Oilers General Manager Ken Holland, who's had, geez, I wanted to say like a tough 24 hours. And then I thought about saying 42 hours. And I'll just say he's had a tough few months. The pressure he's been under from all directions has been immense.

And although, you know, we thought it might've happened in that game against the Calgary Flames, had they have lost, he's always resisted, you know, taking the fire the coach route. And then for whatever reason, coming out of All-Star, lost two games where the Oilers looked really flat. Did he have no other option other than to fire Dave Tippett after the loss against Chicago Blackhawks? So what I heard during the day was it came together quick.

And basically the way Holland described it, it sure did. It's a tough day for the fans. It's a tough day for the fans. It's a tough day for the people in there. When you're in there today, and then in comes, you know, Tip comes, you know, met with Tip, and then I went into Jim Playfair's office, and, you know, I hadn't made the decision after the game last night, so it's had a bit of a, like it's a funeral feeling, you know,

like everybody's down, like they're massively down, and, you know, they've worked together closely for three years and then you know they're saying goodbyes and then they tips leave and and and you know they're cleaning out their office and and uh am i comfortable decision yeah i'm comfortable decision did i make the decision yeah i made the final decision did i talk to people yeah if i've been thinking about it when we were 2-11 and 2 it's some boy was here I kept believing that that we were going to get it turned around and we did you know we got it 5-0-1-1 and we were starting to go and then I looked at the schedule it's 40 games and 80 nights and it's every second night and it's three home games to start let's get off to a good

start the second half and then like I said to you last the last 10 minutes of third period last night as I was sitting there talking to I just came to the conclusion overnight this morning that that what I did so I don't take these decisions lightly these are real people's lives these are people that. They're lifelong hockey people and they've helped for the previous two years. I think we've accomplished some good things. We're making good progress. So today was a tough day. He strikes me as the kind of guy who would sleep on something and he did. And he woke up in the morning and he just said it was time. He hadn't changed his mind. You know, what I think happened was Ken Holland spent a lot of January fighting off the belief that he had to do something. I think internally, externally, he was under a lot of

pressure as they were in that swoon to do something. And, you know, some people go crazy and they run with this and they say, oh, Daryl Cates is trying to force Ken Holland to do something. I don't even think it's so much the owner. I mean, I think overall in the organization, there's like a feeling of what are we going to do here? You know, the players are wondering. The coach is wondering. All the executives are wondering. The business people are wondering.

People above him on the food chain are wondering. People lower than him on the food chain are wondering. The fans are wondering. The media is wondering. The other teams are wondering. We're all wondering. And I think he really tried to weather the storm look like we're all talking here about what analytics matter and what don't matter right well there were some numbers there particularly expected goals for and against that you know someone showed to ken holland and he said that

he used it as justification we're're getting hammered by COVID. I think we're better than we are. And there was a time there at the end of January, right before the All-Star break, that it looked like his situation was validated. His beliefs were validated. They got points in their last six games. They went 5-0-1. And I think they really thought the worst was over, that the worst was

over and they were going to be okay. And then they came out of the all-star break with those two games. And it just wasn't good enough. And you know what the problem is, Jeff? They look listless. They really do. They don't look energetic. They don't look like a force. Like Smith took a lot of blame for that game on Wednesday night. I know there were a lot of people that didn't like the fact he played back-to-back. I was really surprised. And he gives up the first two goals and he gets the Bronx cheer, right? Yeah.

But both of those passes were beautiful cross-ice passes. One was a one-timer. Leaves it there for Dylan Strome. Back to Patrick Kane. Over to Debrinkit. He shoots. He scores! Alex Debrinkit on the Hawks.

First shot of the game beats Mike Smith with a slap shot from the left circle. And another was a quick shot. To the Oilers on left circle. Fed the right circle. And a shot. They score! Brandon Hagel, number 13 on the season. a quick shot. Like I thought he really battled. I thought he made some unbelievable saves. Edmonton is on the abyss and they're a sloppy team. Like they're not very detail oriented.

Is that all coaching? No, i don't think it is but you know what happens you you make the move you can make and the easiest move to make especially since the coach's contract was up this year was to make that change so i spoke earlier on today with someone from a team who said so we're talking about this situation and he said you know i'm watching these last two games and they're making the same mistakes that they were making when they were on their losing streak. And the topic turned to, you know, the pressure that Holland was under.

And this person said, you know, if Ken Holland would have fired Dave Tippett, you know, let's say they would have lost that Calgary game, I would have agreed that this was an owner, owner led decision, but he said, I'm of the belief that this is Ken Holland's decision period. As much as he's under pressure from all those places that you mentioned, and everybody's wondering about it, that this was Ken Hollins. And he said, I wonder if in the back of Hollins' mind, he's thinking, we've just lost two games in a row. We can't go through another seven, eight game losing streak.

We can't afford to do that right now. And listen, the all-star break really hurt them. They were in a nice little groove. You remember that Washington game and the shorthanded game winner by Ryan Nugent Hopkins. There was a momentum, and then it just stopped. There are some teams that need a break. Edmonton didn't. They were getting it back, and they were feeling good, and they were playing well.

Then the break came, and they came back, and they went right back to making the same mistakes they made when they were on their losing streak. I think that's probably what terrified Ken Holland into making this move. I agree with that. I agree with that completely. You know, especially this year, you have to look at points percentage, right? Yes. So before the Vegas game, so LA was at 585 and Anaheim's at 573.

Edmonton was at 583. So they're right on pace with the Kings and they're ahead on Anaheim. Now they're at 557 with two losses. So all of a sudden, they've really lost control of their own destiny. And if they win all their games, yes, they're better. But as you said, you can't bank on that the way they came out of it. And the other thing that's a problem right now, Jeff, is they really have no practice time coming up. They have six games in the next 10 days. They've got Saturday and Sunday off,

but they're not really going to be able to practice. And that's too bad because you have a new coach there. Well, you have two new coaches, both Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson, who comes in as it's not just Dave Tippett who gets relieved of his duties, but Jim Playfair as well. Who gets a bump right away? I know they're not going to be able to practice a whole ton here, but that's an coaching change shot of energy. You jolt the team who gets the bump right away.

I mean, the first person that jumped to my mind is Evan Bouchard, who, you know, really reacted well with Dave Manson and Jay Woodcroft in Bakersfield. Who do you think gets the jolt here, gets the little bump? Because there's a few, whether it's Pauly Harvey or Yamamoto, whatever. Who do you think gets the boost? I think Bouchard is the obvious one. You know, until Koskinen gets back, I wonder. I think we all expected that Skinner was going to play

on Wednesday night. He didn't. I have a theory about that. What's your theory? My theory is, first of all, Mike Smith is one of the most unique goaltenders in the game, period. And Mike Smith is very competitive,

one of the most competitive goaltenders you will find in the game, period. And as much as Mike Smith is very competitive, one of the most competitive goaltenders you will find in the game, period. And as much as Mike Smith understands the reality of goaltending, he is also a competitor. When he came out for the third period in that Vegas game, I think we were all surprised. I know I certainly was. I'm not sure if you were, but I was surprised that he came out. if you were, but I was surprised that he came out. And I wonder if Edmonton didn't want Mike Smith to obsess about injuries or hurting himself. Mike Smith coming, you saw the way he skated onto the ice in the third period. Yes.

And he came out defiant. I'm wondering if that is the Oilers saying, we don't want Mike Smith to sit there and think about an injury. We don't want Mike Smith to think about himself. We want to get into his groove. He missed a lot of time. We just want to get him back in there. I know the analytics say, don't do this.

This doesn't work. But for Mike Smith, they just wanted to get him into a groove. Now it's risky. I get it. It's totally risky. And if he hurts himself, there's a lot of questions, but Mike Smith is a competitor that needs to get into a groove. And I'm, I'm wondering Elliot, if that's the motivation behind he went in there back to back.

I think you're probably right. I would take it a bit further. You know, goaltending is a very technical position and the more time you don't play, the more you tend to lose your technique. And I wondered if not only was he worried trying to say, don't worry about injury, but he'd also been off for so long. I bet you there are things he wanted to work on. But I think it's a really good theory. The thing I think that you said, right, is that he wants to play. He just wants to play. And that probably goes back to what we were just talking about, which is I would think that part of this is going to be about

dave tippett had a bias towards certain players right yes the veterans like he's very loyal to mike smith you know whenever i hear about the word loyal i always think about kelly rudy because we were talking about someone once and we said you know what he's too loyal to people and kelly rudy said boy if that's the worst thing anyone ever says about me, I'll take it. I'm doing all right. I'm too loyal to people. I think that Tippett certainly had a loyalty to certain players.

And I just think that part of this is we need to break that loyalty. We need to try something new. And I think that maybe Skinner will be a little bit of that. They're calling up Broberg for injury reasons. You know, maybe Bouchard will be another part of that. I don't think there's any question that Tippett had his preferences. And I think they just said, it's time to try something else. You know, I think the other thing too that's really interesting is that

everybody talked about how Ken Holland had never fired a coach during the season before. Dave Tippett had never been fired during a season before. And he was proud of that. As tough as it was for Holland to do it, I think it was hard for Tippett because that's never happened to him

and that was a point of pride for him. Absolutely. Safe to say though, Edmonton's still in the goalie market in a big way. You know, we've talked before. I think they offered like a fifth rounder for Martin Jones. We mentioned on the radio today

that we both heard that at least at one point they were asked for a second and a third for Corposalo and And maybe that changed. Some people told me that kind of changed, but I do think at one point in time that was the offer. I've had people tell me that they suspect that the goalie Edmonton likes is Husso. But if I'm St. Louis, even though Husso is an unrestricted free agent, I'm trying to win the Stanley Cup. I get it. It's always that delicate balance of managing assets

and trying to win. And right now that's in conflict. In goal, I'm trying to win the Stanley Cup. Just so our listeners understand, Billy Huso is and has been the backup goaltender to Jordan Binnington. He's having a fantastic season. Before Binnington popped on their Stanley Cup run,

he was considered the goaltender of the future. As I mentioned, having a great season, his contract when it expires this season will make him an unrestricted free agent at the age of 27 and a very highly sought-after free agent. We should add as well, just so everyone understands the Billy Husso situation.

I've heard they like him, but if I was St. Louis, I'm not doing that right now. You know, unless you give me a better situation to back up Binnington, I don't think I would do it. Okay, so to the other coaching situation, and this one was a stunner this one is interesting and it almost has i'll tell you frege it almost has a walt disney-esque movie element about it hall of fame nhl superstar takes over the reins of you know the crown jewel of the NHL, the longest serving franchise, the legendary Montreal Canadiens who find themselves in last place. He finds himself behind the bench, having never coached at the NHL level, having come

in after only coaching 13-year-old AAA players, and it's up to him to save the franchise. All of this has Walt Disney movie written all over it. Like when you just pull back, cause we all look at this and say, well, hold on a second. How can Martin St. Louis go behind the bench of the fabled Montreal Canadians who find

themselves in last place here? Where did this one come from? There is that Disney S element to all of this. How do you see the situation? Dom Ducharme remove are relieved of his duties martin saint louis takes over i think i was as surprised as everybody else that it was saint louis i think they were considering a coaching change i had absolutely no doubt about that i really believe that if they made a long-term change there was a better than

zero chance that it was going to be jim montgomery that was the guy i kind of had focused on kent hughes and jim montgomery are tight and i believe hughes represented them played together at cjep too played together at cjep long history there like that was the guy i was kind of focused on and there were some people who know them both better who weren't surprised like jeff gorton has had a long uh like for san luis you know i think when they were hiring david quinn in new york i know there was some talk about would san luis be interested and i think they did at least talk to him about it ken Ken Hughes and San Luis, like Ken Hughes didn't rep San Luis. Their kids played on the same team and they became friends.

Like they would go to Michigan together to watch their kids play and they became really tight. And I think that this was always part of the plan that if San Luis wanted the opportunity to be the long-term coach of the Montreal Canadiens, he was going to have the opportunity to do it. And to me, they just wanted to accelerate it. And if you look at Jeff Gordon, okay, he was shocked by what happened to him in New York. Yes. I don't think that they really saw it unfolding the way it unfolded. I think there was a lot of surprise

and there was a lot of shock. And what I think Jeff Gorton, who I think is a really smart person, has learned going into Montreal in a new situation, I'm going to surround myself with people that I trust. Look, he obviously trusts Ken Hughes. He went through that whole process and went to Hughes at the end, and Hughes got the job. And Hughes and him both trust Marty St. Louis, and so he's put someone there who he knows and trusts. And the other thing I really think is they've got to make some big choices. They've got to make some really big decisions on players, and I think he just felt that we need someone new in there to help us make the decisions.

Someone we know who's going to be in that room every day telling us what's really going on and who's part of the problem and who's part of the solution. And I don't think that makes Marty San Luis a spy because I was talking about that with someone. Someone saw me say that on air on Wednesday and they said, you think San Luis is a spy? And I said, no, I don't believe that. someone. Someone saw me say that on air on Wednesday and they said, you think Stan Louie is a spy?

And I said, no, I don't believe that. That's not what I think at all. I don't think he's a spy. I think he wants the players to do well, but I think he's also there to give information. Like he's their conduit. He's a voice that they know and trust to be the person who tells them who's who we should keep and here's who

we shouldn't keep and they've got some big choices to make and i think they wanted san luis in there to help them make those choices let me color that with another color here you know further to that point i look at the montreal canadians jeff gordon with the organization new ken hughes with the organization new i look at everything that that Montreal is doing this season. Okay. And these guys have come in in the middle of the season. This isn't like they've had a fresh start. They had a summer to plan.

They've been parachuted in here and everything they do is all about one thing, gathering information. That's it. Jeff Gordon is doing it. Kent Hughes is doing it. And now Martin St. Louis is doing it.

And I don't think it's a matter of like, oh, he's there to be the snitch behind the bench. I'm with you. I think he's there to say, here are some of the things that you might be missing out. Here's some of the things you might not know about these players, good and bad. And I think that's valuable to Kent Hughes.

Let's not forget here. Kent Hughes is about to make franchise changing decisions. Jeff Gorton is about to make franchise changing decisions. Before you do that, do you not owe it to the organization to have as much information at your disposal before you make these moves? Because if you don't, I think we can accuse you of being frivolous and just making moves based on reputation, hearsay, whatever else you may make your moves on. I think San Luis is there to provide important

information from someone who's close to being an nhl player like he's there understanding these guys he's there understanding these players he was one of them to me this is all just in service of the one initiative from everyone in the organization right now above him and that is gather information and that's all that it And that's all that it is. That's all that it is. I mostly agree with you. I think if there's one thing I'd say it's also about that is I think that you can't let your young players think

that the way they're playing right now is okay. In my career, one of the things I learned, don't worry about is ratings, okay? Don't worry about how many people are watching the game that we're doing or how many people are downloading the podcast or how many people are reading the blog. I think that takes care of itself. Right.

But I think you have to approach it. Like 11, 20 billion people are reading it. It's the Michael Jordan thing that a February game, our record could be 50 and 10 and I'm going into a team that's two and 48, but there's some fan here who bought a ticket to see me. Right? Like I always admired that that's the way he looked at things. He always found reason to try and put on a show.

And I've told that story about the one Raptor game many times. And I've always kind of tried to look at it that way in the sense of, you know what, like someone's tuning in, they're giving me their time and I'm only going to be successful if I treat it like, hey, this is an important show or this is an important podcast. I got to give it my all. Now I will freely admit that many times I come well short of that standard, but I always try. And I think that's the thing that's been missing from the Canadians. And part of it, I do think Jeff, and we've had this argument is about the fact that there's no fans there. And I think it makes the atmosphere terrible and they're having an awful year and it makes it even worse.

But I think you have to show up and play. I think you have to show up and compete. It's your reputation as a professional. And that game the other night, I am not surprised in the least. The Devils game, 7-1, yeah. That they came out and made the change. I don't think that's all on Dominic Ducharme. I don't think it's all his fault.

But I think that what they're saying is that whatever reason he's lost the ability to get them to play harder than that. And we have to go try to find something else now. And then when you hear players like Josh Anderson come on afterwards and talk about how embarrassing it is. I mean, we got embarrassed out there tonight. You know, we had a couple of mistakes that uh cost us goals and um you know you'd think after the break that um you'd be refreshed and and ready to go but um you know you know you guys

witnessed it out there um it was just uh you know i feel embarrassed to be honest you so um we better be ready to go next game. That's just another log on the fire. And you say to yourself, okay, something has to change here. One final thing on Martin St. Louis, because I thought it was pretty funny. What was the line you had in there, the section you had in your blog about Martin St. Louis and ice time? So I had one of his former coaches who said to me,

I can't wait for the first time that a player goes up to him with the sheet stat sheet and says, you didn't use me enough because apparently he was famous for that. Like he would check the stat sheet. And if he didn't get the ice time, he felt he deserved, he would go to his coach and say, are you kidding me?

Like you didn't use me enough. So one coach said, I can't wait for the first time San Luis does that. I thought it was only minor slash youth hockey dads that did that. NHL players. Kamri Granato, you mentioned her earlier. She leaves the Seattle Kraken where she had a

scouting position to join the management team of the Vancouver Canucks. She is now an assistant general manager. So that management team looks like Jim Rutherford, Patrick Alveen, Emily Castonguay is an AGM, ditto Derek Clancy, and now Cami Granato as well. Ryan Johnson, by the way, senior director of player development, general manager of the Abbotsford Canucks. The Cami Granato hiring, your thoughts? Well, I think that there were going to be some options there. We were talking earlier on about, you know, what Teresa Feaster and Jeannie Kingsbury and like, I think there were going to be some options for Kami. She said in her interview or media conference, they kind of accelerated in the last 10 days.

I would say in the last week, last week, maybe eight or nine days started. The talk started and Seattle was gracious enough to let me talk to Jim. And Jim and I had some great conversations and he had a lot of wonderful things to say about what his vision is. And he's a great person. So it was really exciting to hear about the opportunity. Didn't sleep a lot this week after a lot of nights thinking about taking the job and how it all worked. And that's sort of the timeline that happened. Earlier this morning, I'd said something similar on Vancouver radio because that's what I heard.

I heard it really kind of accelerated in Vancouver pretty recently because I think there was some work going on out there that I think there were some other teams that were maybe interested. And I think Vancouver knew if they wanted to get her, they better get moving. You know, I think that's what she wanted. I mean, it's her family. That's where her base is. And I'm glad it worked out.

I don't think the Canucks are done yet. I think it's possible they could add another female to the staff. Today, the Arizona Board of Regents approved a development plan for a multi-purpose arena. This is the one we've been talking about recently, and this does include the Coyotes amendments. So the Coyotes will play at ASU for the next three seasons. That could, as we now know, could be extended as well.

This is really happening, Elliot. This is really happening. I'm not willing to say it's really happening yet. Contingent on the rink in Tempe? Well, apparently the agreement is not contingent on the rink. People think that the Tempe vote is going to take place in somewhere in March or April, right? And so what if they say no? The team going to sit there and play at Arizona State for three years?

That's what we're all wondering. That's why I keep throwing that Montreal Expos idea out there. You know, at the end of it, who knows how votes go. If they don't get the votes and they don't get the rink, what then? Can you honestly see a situation where if they don't get the r and they don't get the rank what then can you honestly see a situation where if they don't get the rank they're playing in arizona state next year no that's why i think and again this is just a theory that they sell the team back to the league the league puts it up for auction ends up somewhere else i think you could be right i'm just saying

about next year they're not playing in arizona state if there's not a rink coming. It's just such a bad, bad look. So if you look at the economics of the deal, Arizona State gets the naming rights for the arena. Arizona State gets the sponsorships. The Coyotes get the gate. The Coyotes get a piece of the concessions. The Coyotes get merchandise sales. They get some kind of parking revenue, although not the majority of it.

But there's two things we don't know yet. Number one, what's the capacity? There's no commitment on capacity. Now, it's listed at 5,000. We've reported 32. I had someone tell me today they think it's going to be somewhere between 35 and 4. We'll see and then the other thing is apparently there's some models out there that show an average ticket price that's pretty

high but you know as someone said to me you can model anything you want what's your reality so i think that's the question we've got to figure out here is what is the average ticket price they're going to be? You know, for example, some of these are supposed to be bleacher seats. Can you sell a bleacher seat for a high ticket price? Like I had people tell me you can't do that. I had other people tell me, well, I think I could sell anything. Just I'd have to think about that one a little bit. One of the questions that I have is when you're watching this,

like I'm watching this on my NHL package, does it look like they're playing in a rink for the Coyotes or does it look like they're renting ASU? Like is there Sun Devil branding everywhere? Is there Sun Devil branding on the ice or does it look like it's the Arizona Coyotes rink? I think they're going to have the opportunity to make the games look like a Coyotes game when they're playing. What I'm really curious about is what's Center Ice going to look like? Is it

going to be a Sun Devil Coyote? Hey, do we know who owns Rinkboard? Well, that's also sponsorships of the Arizona State. I think the question is, are they going to be able to change sponsorship during games? I don't know. That's my question, because you can do that. Yeah, I don't know the answer. You remember that beer commercial where the one actor says, this is a travesty, a sham, and a mockery?

It's a Travis shamockery? Whose pocket are you in? That's unacceptable. No, you're unacceptable. This whole thing is a travesty and a sham and a mockery. It's a Travis shamockery. No making up words. Burger flickle.

Oh, God. How do you remember that? Oh, it was such a great commercial. We used to use that word all the time. So that way you can morph the sun devil and the coyote into a sun devil yodi do you remember the commercial where uh your chocolate's in my peanut butter hey they're great together that's kind of like that one too there's one coyotes fan i got really angry about something i said on your radio show and they sent me a very long dm and what i said

was gary betman has fought harder for the Coyotes than some of their fans. And this person said to me, like, that's a joke. We care about our hockey team. And like the real hardcore Coyotes fans, we have proven that we care about our hockey team. And that's over the line.

Okay. You know, that's fair. Look, a lot of us are mocking all of this. You know who I saw was really happy today? We're actual Coyotes fans. So let's give them their due. This is a good day for them. I think there's a lot of other people who really don't like this.

And they think it's a bad look for the league. And they wonder if this is ever seriously going to happen. But it's a victory for the hardcore Coyote fans, one of whom was extremely upset by something I said. And on that, I salute them. I know the economics of this don't look good and won't be good. But if I try to look for some type of silver lining here, to your point, hardcore Coyotes fans are happy here.

They got a rink. And two, this is going to look different and feel different in this intimate setting. I just hope it's a wild one. Your one real hope here is to turn it into a great atmosphere. Let's just say, for example, you're charging $250 a ticket. Are you going to be able to get that kind of atmosphere at $250 a ticket? To borrow a wrestling analogy, if this is like ECW Arena and it's crazy with fans like that,

absolutely. Are you getting that at $200 a ticket though? I'm with you. I don't know what that's going to happen. All right, Elliot, before you wrap up, I think a couple of words about the now former executive director of the PHF Players Association, Alex Sinatra, who we had on our podcast a couple of weeks ago.

And then I think a lot of people were shocked, surprised when she was dismissed from her position shortly after her appearance on this podcast. I had some people who asked me if we were going to address it, and I kind of wanted to collect my thoughts about it first. You know, Jeff, I just remember when it was unfolding, I was surprised about some things, about players not knowing what's in their contracts,

and I thought Alex made some really bold statements, but I don't have a problem with that. That's her opinion. And if that's her opinion, I'm okay with it. I guess some other people weren't and it resulted in her losing her job. I was really surprised when I heard it. I don't really know what else to say.

I haven't spoken to Alex since. I think this podcast should be a place where people can come on and say what they really think. Honestly, Jeff, I'm still surprised at it. I guess I really am. I don't think we tripped her up. I don't think we did anything untoward. One of the things that I've learned over the years is that you know women's hockey is still

like at the professional level it's a really evolving place in north america and the more things grow and the more of us are going to be talking about women's hockey like the more this is going to happen with increased focus there's a lot of good that comes with that players get more attention the league gets more attention more people are exposed of good that comes with that. Players get more attention. The league gets more attention. More people are exposed to it. But also with that comes a lot of scrutiny. And anybody who follows, like, for example, the NHL knows that there's a lot of positive presidential gets, but there's a lot of negative presidential gets.

That comes with the territory. And I think you just have to be aware of that, that not everything is going to be judged positively and not everything is going to be easily accepted. And I think you just have to learn to understand that that's going to happen sometimes. So here's how I look at it, Elliot. I look at the entire situation as, and you mentioned the women's game now that it's becoming more popular and is getting more attention is going to be more highly scrutinized. And I think that's a good thing. I think that shows growth. But what I look at right now in the situation with Alex Sinatra and the PHF from a couple of weeks ago now, I look at it as a growing pain for the women's game. And there are, you know, have there been missteps by the PHF? Yes. By their players association?

Yes. Have there been missteps by the PWHPA? Yes. But I don't think that that's any different than any other league. Like if you measure it off against, you know, a very slick and professional NHL, of course, it's not going to measure up well. But I always encourage people because I heard a lot of like, oh, look at this. The women can't get their act together. All this is a joke.

Like, oh, this is, you know, they're fumbling around. Like, if you want to talk about fumbling around, you know, don't look at the NHL now and compare it to where the women's game is at. Go back to the beginning of the NHL, or should I say the NHA, the forerunner of the NHL, because the baptism from the NHA to the NHL was a double cross, was a bunch of owners stabbing Eddie Livingston in the back to start what we now know as the NHL. Go back and study and read about the early years of the NHL. You would say the exact same

thing about that league. How can this league succeed with these people running it? It is calamity after calamity. It is despicable behavior writ large. I think this is just a part of the growing pains of the women's game right now. It's getting bigger. It's getting more popular. There's another big pressure point coming at the end of this Olympic cycle. Elliot, you and I have talked about this plenty. We know there's going to be many more hires of women around the national programs in Canada and the United States. And I think what we just saw in the PHF, and this is right on the heels of a commitment from ownership for $25 million in full benefits and doubling of salary caps, et cetera. This is a growing pain, and this is what leagues go through.

And I don't look at it as anything other than that. I don't look at it as the same way that people who have used the situation with Alex Sinatra as a pinata, just take another whack, take another whack at the women's hockey. I don't think that's right. I don't think that you can compare what the women's game is doing right now to where the men's game is at. They have a over a hundred year headstart on this, for crying out loud. I just think that this is a phase right now that women's hockey is going through and each

phase along the way, I think we need to cut the women's game a lot of slack because much like the men over a century ago when hockey was, whether it was codified in Nova Scotia, whether it was codified at McGill University in Montreal, there's been a lot of fumbling along the way. And we look at where the game is at now. We say, wow, what a wonderful product. Don't measure the women's game up against where the NHL is at right now. I think that's unfair.

And I just look at the situation with the PHF and their now former executive director and say, this is what leagues go through. And you just hope that they learn from it and move on. That's how I see it. Well said. Taking us out is Bud,

a rock band out of Toronto. Now, if you like the spirit of Canadiana and are one to keep your stick on the ice, then this Bud's for you. Nice script, Amel. The band is playing their debut show at Sneaky D's. Oh, I love Sneaky D's. Great nachos. Try the nachos. Yes.

Their debut show at Sneaky D's. Those nachos are good, whether it's 11 at night or 3 o'clock in the morning. Elliot, I know you've been there. Their debut show at Sneaky D's in Toronto, March 11th. Oh, I love Sneaky D's with their single, Nowhere. Here's Bud on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Let me sing a song for you. It kind of goes on and on.

How it goes, I don't know At least I got everybody singing Left to right, sea so dark Whatever happened to the light? Cross the line, on the road Let's go with no word Where it goes, I don't know, but I'm not even Tell them not, I won't buy it, yeah, we don't even care Nowhere, nowhere Nowhere, nowhere I got one thing I need to say. I don't think I'm better in any way.

We just like good times. We like everyone and everything. Where is the soul? Where is the taste? Do you like anything?