32 Thoughts: The Podcast - When the Stars Start Speaking

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

In this episode of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman react to Leon Draisaitl leaving Sunday’s game after a hit from Ozzy Wiesblatt, while the Oilers don’t sound overly concerned and responded on the ice. They discuss Connor McDavid weighing in on player safety and suspensions, and what Gary Bettman’s response could be when the Board of Governors meets in Florida (5:51). The guys also touch on World Cup of Hockey host cities being on the BOG agenda (22:30), while goalie interference debate resurfaces again after the Ottawa–Anaheim incident over the weekend (23:40). They note the end of Dave Alter’s impressive reporting streak (31:00), Mason McTavish’s surprising healthy scratch (35:30), and a tough weekend for Montreal despite Jacob Fowler continuing to show promise (40:30). The episode also covers Bobby McMann’s hot start in Seattle (44:30), the tightening playoff races (47:50), Dan Muse entering the Coach of the Year conversation (48:40), and where Macklin Celebrini might land on Hart Trophy ballots (50:30). The Final Thought focuses on Cole Hutson signing a three-year entry-level contract with the Washington Capitals (52:30). Kyle and Elliotte answer listener questions in the Thoughtline (1:00:56). Today we highlight a London, Ontario indie rock band Modern Morals and their track Yitzbin. Check them out here. Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here. 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

And speaking of going out for beer, what are you and I both drinking right now as we do this pod, non-alcoholic beer? We're drinking non-beer beers. And the bother, I can feel the bond strengthening here. I'm sitting in your hotel room for crying out loud. So this is true. So Berkeley is on this trip. Yep. So Kyle can't be in his room right now.

So he is sitting at my desk. and I am on the balcony. Welcome to 32th, the podcast, presented by your Canadian Toyota dealers and the 100% Electric BZ available now during red tag days. Dom Elliott, Kyle, back with you once again. And before we go any further, congrats to USA hockey. First time in history, a complete suite of gold medals in women's hockey, men's hockey, and in para hockey. and in para hockey, the same winter Olympics. On Sunday, they beat Canada, 6 to 2 for the gold in the parahockey.

Fifth Paralympic gold for USA Captain Josh Paul's in his career, Elliot. It's an amazing accomplishment, incredible, really. As a Canadian, I grimace a little bit hearing you say that, Kyle, but fair is fair and right is right. It had never been done before. It's an incredible accomplishment. And the American players know on every one of those teams, the senior men, the senior women, and the para team and some of their other teams, which have been really successful lately, the target is on them. And there's nothing better than being the chasee as opposed to the chaser. Yes.

That was the John Cooper line, right? rather be at the top trying to swat everyone else off than the ones trying to climb up there in the first place. 100%. 100%. Elliot, we've got another injury to a superstar in the National Hockey League to get in a little bit here. Though we don't have a ton of information, but on Sunday night, the Edmonton Oilers and the Nashville Predators, Leon Drysiddle, opens the scoring for Edmonton, and then later in the first period, Ozzy Wiseblatt catches him with a heavy hit right by the Nashville bench.

Drysidal you could tell, was feeling it right away. He'd tried to come back and move a little bit after leaving the bench for a period of time. Did not play a shift again beyond the first period on Sunday. No real update from Chris Knoblock post game, but it doesn't sound at this point that they are overly concerned? No. No. Noblock said was that the medical staff or the training staff gave him the clearance to come back and try. So when you get that, as he pointed out, it's no red flags. Now, he did say he might miss some time, although it didn't sound like it was going to be anything serious. But just another example of what we've been through this week, Kyle, is, and you have to wonder in the aftermath of what happened with Toronto, is if all 31 other teams, like their coaches just quickly. said, hey a reminder, when something happens to one of our players, we expect you to respond in

kind. And the Oilers sure did. Not only did they win the game, which was the most important thing, but they chased after Wiseblatt a few times, even though I thought the hit was clean. The only thing I was worried about was, and you'll remember this, Kyle, the injury that knocked out Dakota Joshua from Toronto this year, the lacerated kidney, it was similar. That was the first thing I was worried about when I saw Dryside, like, oh, no, did he do what Dakota Joshua did against the boards? But it doesn't sound like it's anything like that, thankfully. Just another brick in the Calgary-Edmonton rivalry. Drysidal the Euler, Wiseblatt from Calgary, and he hit him cleanly.

I have no problem with the hit, clean hit. But Oilers fans will look at his birthplace and say, they did it to us again. And it is that uncomfortable spot on the ice, as mentioned, right by the bench, right? You don't have the glass to kind of help cushion the blow. Everything's coming down right on top of the dasher in those instances, just like the Joshua one,

that you mentioned earlier in this season with Toronto, and then Drysiddle and Wiseblight coming in. together on Sunday night. So we'll see where things go from here with dry saddle, as you say, an important two points for the oilers. Yeah, big win for the Oilers. Especially after the way things slipped away against St. Louis. And it was tight as Nashville pushed back in the third period here on Sunday.

But another victory for Connor Ingram, for Knoblock said, he's the guy going forward until something changes. He's four, one and one in his last six decisions. All they're asking for is a bit of traction. and maybe he's starting to put together a body of work that would suggest that. Oilers still behind Anaheim and Vegas, both of whom have games in hand, but Edmonton does have the best tiebreaker right now. They've got two more regulation wins than Vegas and three over Anaheim.

But again, Kyle, the Oilers and their conversation on Sunday, it wasn't what happened on the ice that was the big. story around them. It was comments made by their captain. Captain Connor. Yeah, you know, I think the player safety has done their best. It's not an easy thing to do. You know, with that being said, I think that there is reason to take a look at how the whole process works. you know if every time there's a suspension everybody complains about it well why don't we why don't we take a look at the process and

and figure it out if there's a better way to to make sure that both parties are happy because you know it seems like there's a lot of frustration there as well the owners the GMs they're in it too you can't suspend our player for too much so they've I can't speak to that I can't speak to that I'm not I'm not an owner. I'm not a GM. I'm a player, and I can say that from the player's player perspective, I think every time there is a suspension, most times there's a suspension,

there is a lot of frustration from the player side. So why don't we take a look at the process and figure out a way that works for everybody? As if this story wasn't already burning with the heat of 1,000 sons, McDavid weighs in, and I don't think we should be surprised. After all, it was his agent who had the fiery statement on Friday night. Matthews is represented by the same guy, and McDavid and Matthews are friendly. The other thing, too, is,

and I thank the person who reminded me about this, you know, McDavid a couple years ago, when he got suspended for that Connor Garland cross check, it was three games. I think that third game really bothered him. I think he could have tolerated two but the third one, it bothered him.

And I kind of wondered if that's still something that stuck in his craw as he commented about this specific situation. But anyway, we're here at the GM meetings. We're in Florida. They begin on Monday morning as you hear this pod. And the commissioner doesn't usually speak at these until Wednesday. Now there's a chance we could hear from him on Monday, and we'll get to that in a couple of minutes. But this will be Betman's first chance to talk about this since it exploded on the scene last week. And I'm very curious to hear what he's going to say, because I'm going to bet he doesn't like this at all.

Number one, he threatens and the NHL threatens people with fines. Every year, when the coaches and GMs get together before the season, he reminds them, or Colin Campbell reminds them, or somebody in the league reminds them, we will fine you for being critical of our officials. He doesn't like it. He thinks it hurts the league. It's something that really bothers him.

Well, he can't control an agent, and what McDavid said was really my. It's his opinion. Totally fine. But still, it's out there. And, you know, Betman, to his credit, backs his staff.

He won't like to see what's happening to his department here. He won't like seeing these comments all over the place. And, you know, the other thing, too, is, let's just say for argument's sake, the Players Association and the league actually want to do an amendment to the CBA, to change the way it works, it goes through him. Like, nothing's going to happen without him agreeing to it.

And he's not going to enjoy if he feels he's being pushed into any kind of corner here. So I'm really curious about this and how he comes out reacting to it. It's generally the kind of thing he frowns upon, doesn't like, and like I said, if you're critical of the league, he will find you. The other thing about this is, Kyle, I'm curious to say, you know, what he says, the players association about it, because he would have to negotiate with them. Does he say, do you want to talk about this? Or does he say how many of your players believe in this?

is this something your membership really wants to pursue? So it's going to be fascinating over the next couple of days where this goes. Got any thoughts? Well, especially because, you know, we got some stuff into the thought line and not to get there sooner than we will later on in the episode. But it's just worth mentioning because of the fact that this is all. always gets brought up when, you know, player safety and how suspensions are determined, the fact that the PA is representing both sides here and the effectiveness of it truly, Dennis from Oliver V.C., one of them, that wrote into the thought line going,

how does it work when you've got both sides here representing both Radco Gudis in this case and Austin Matthews? Yeah. So, like, that's, that's still a confusing one to me. I wonder, too, L.A., like, is there a growing appetite, if we're going to go down this road, to have the discussion around when it comes to an incident that results in injury, the severity of it, how much time a player's going to miss because of said injury, is that something that is more considered when determining the penalty to the player,

that committed the act in the first place. Okay, so we're going to go through a couple of these things because this is some stuff I've done work on on the weekend. There are a number of people who said to me, well, Gouda should just sit out as long as Matthew stays out. And I'm not suggesting that. Yeah, but I don't think that'll ever happen. And the reason is, and it's not,

it won't happen in this particular case because Toronto would never hold Matthews out of the lineup, if he was in theory healthy enough to play, he would put him back in. But Chris Pronger and I were talking about this on the weekend. And I said to him, Chris, let's be honest, if your player was the injured player and he wasn't as good as the suspended player and you could hurt the other team by keeping a good player out of the lineup, you would hold that player out. And he, like, laughed.

He said, yeah, I probably would. And he is not the only guy who would be like that. I know you, Kyle. I know your devious and evil nature that if you were in such a situation and you felt your player was not as valuable as the other one, you would also hold him out of the lineup. You would bribe him with free Oreo cookies and pounds of state. just sit out of the lineup. That's an incredible combo.

That'll be honest. You know what? You can eat them both together. Fridge, I think we're on to something. We're on to something. And people would manipulate it. A thousand percent people would manipulate it. Let me get to that in a second.

I did want to clear up something. I misspoke about one thing on Saturday night when I was breaking this down on the, on the, on hockey night in Canada. and that is I said that the NHL presented data showing the history of knee suspensions and what they were, they didn't present that. Now, I stand by what I said, which is that everybody here knew that what the history was. Like if, and some people said to me, you didn't need to go back 15 years. Like it's not that relevant.

And the reason I did, well, there were two reasons. Number one, I think it's always better to be more thorough than less. And number two, I heard Toronto told the league and compared it to Matt Cook's suspension, which was in 2014, 12 years ago. So I figured if you're going back 12 years, you might as well go back 15. Like that was my choice. But one thing that was 100% true was that the NHLPA knew how

kneeling suspensions were handed out in recent memory. And the NHL knew how kneeing suspensions were handed out in recent memory. And the NHLPA has been much, much more active in appealing these suspensions over the past couple of years, and the league is wary of that.

So even though I misspoken said the NHLPA presented it, They didn't, but they were certainly aware of the data, and so was the league. And the league knew that the Players Association wouldn't have a problem with appealing it if they felt it was too heavy-handed. And if you go back over the past 15 years of the 16 kneeing suspensions, 12 of them were two games or fewer. there was one that was seven, that was Matt Cook,

there was one that was six and brought down to four, that on appeal, that was Jason Spetsa, there was another one that was four, Arthur Calliyev, but that was two exhibition games and two regular season games. Like there just isn't a lot of high-level punishment, neighing suspensions. And Goudis is they put them on the upper end, and the PA decided,

not to appeal it. Now, you talked about injuries, and I had a follower on X, Brian C. He asked about that. Should Matthews and this particular play have more of a punishment because of the injury? If you look at the history, Kyle, it doesn't really matter.

Tyson Barry, that was during the playoffs, but Barry would have been out six weeks it was announced, and Cook got seven games in the playoffs, you'd say, hmm, there's something there. Well, Dmitri Orlov got a two-game suspension for kneeing Nick Eilers. Eilers was out six weeks. Jason Spatza got six games down to four for neighing Neil Pionk. I think he missed two games.

I think he was back nine days later. And Kalev only got two regular season games for neighing Chase DeLeo and he missed six weeks. So severity's got nothing to do with it. It's all over the map. And that goes to what you brought up earlier. Right. Well, and we know that.

In the past, it has had nothing to do with it. And that's why you're wondering, okay, at some point in the future, do they look at possibly? And I don't even know where you start because I'm with you. It's not a eye for an eye in terms of player misses X number of time. offending player sits out equal amount of time. I'm not suggesting that's the answer, but just the notion of... Because we know you would manipulate it evilly.

Yes. Well, now I've got my steak and Oreo Empire ideas. My head is spinning. The bribing I could do with that. Who could turn that down possibly? I also have to say I did have to chuckle listening to you on Saturday, because last pod, we're talking about the senators getting their first round job or the ability to pick 32nd this year. Yep.

And I said, you know, well, you look at what happened with New Jersey in 2014 with the Colo-Chic thing. You're like, 2014. That's like another world ago. How can that be? And then list you on Saturday. I'm going, well, Matt Cook in 2014. This is what happened. See, that's the least fault.

That's not my fault. They were the ones who brought it in. But, Kyle, I'm glad you brought that up because I noticed it. I realized it. I just wasn't going to say it. I was hoping I was inches from a clean getaway, but you prevented me from escaping. Good job.

I tip my cap to you. By the way, one more thing about this, it's been talked ad nauseum, but after I spoke about it on Saturday night, somebody else called me with another fact I wanted to throw in. I heard Brad Tree Living was absolutely wild about what happened on Thursday night. So I didn't realize this, but he wasn't there.

He was, and I should say right from the beginning, he wouldn't comment on this. I heard this secondhand. So he wasn't there. He was out scouting. And I heard, I don't know if he was watching the game or he was watching another game when someone told him I don't know the details, but I heard he was furious.

And I heard he. called from the road some of the players involved. Now, I asked what was said and people wouldn't tell me. They said they weren't going that far. They weren't revealing the conversations. But apparently he called some of the players involved from the road. Like it was, you know, it's kind of crazy. The lease of won, they have five out of six points since this happened, right?

They've got a win over the docks. They came back. They won in the third period. they have the shootout loss, the sabers, and they beat the suddenly flaccid wild on Sunday night, and nobody even notices the points. I mean, this is all that we're talking about. But I heard someone said to me,

and again, he wouldn't confirm it. He said he didn't want to talk about it, but someone said to me it was his reaction from the road was really something. Gee, and so you're, like, there's, there's got to be a sense within the organization about how that whole ordeal is going to play into whatever the future holds for the Maple Leafs in terms of, oh yeah, no question. How the roster looks like, who's still around, who's not, that's going to be a big part of it. All right, anything else? So want to move on to the rest of the GM meetings or do you want to, is there anything?

Actually, one more thing I wanted to add in, because. After that, all this talk over the weekend of Brotherhood, right? Yep. One of the best lines I heard was down in Buffalo. Now, honorary mention to Rasmus Dahlin, you know, how do you form Brotherhood? I'll just go and drink beers. Great line.

Another one I had heard, you do not have to be a guy's best friend to be a good teammate. That is a great quote. are not mutually exclusive. It's like Mark Wahlberg and the other guys. It's a partner's code. That is great stuff. That is so true. Like there are times we don't always get along with each other.

We aren't very happy with each other at Occamidate in Canada. But when you go on the air, you go on the air to put on the best show you can. Yes. 100%. And you do it together. And speaking of going out for beer, What are you and I both drinking right now as we do this pod, non-alcoholic beer? We're drinking non-beer beers.

And the bother, I can feel the bond strengthening here. I'm sitting in your hotel room for crying out loud. So this is true. So Berkeley is on this trip. Yep. So Kyle can't be in his room right now. So he is sitting at my desk and I am on the balcony. Yeah.

like you're the ultimate host you give up your it's a sauna in here i'm a t-shirt and shorts sweating profusely you're out in the humid air cold and yes in my room i've got sound machine slumber pod going and the wrath that would be waiting for me if i dare disrupt anything going on there thank you you are saving me more than you realize elliot kyle it is my pleasure that is what teammates do. Okay. So GM meetings, Bettman,

maybe we hear from him later Monday. There is a rumor going around that we could learn host cities for the World Cup this week, possibly as soon as today. Yes. Well, and it would track because when Bettman was that two weeks ago,

three weeks ago, when he came through Calgary and did a press conference and was taking questions about, obviously Calgary, you know, province of Alberta is interested in hosting some of the games. We know there's a new building coming to Calgary in 27, Scotia Place. And he had kind of hinted like he was not giving up, okay, when were you going to ultimately be comfortable to make a decision on who the host cities were? but it kind of he winked at this week when the managers would be together,

league representatives, some media would all be in the same vicinity, that this would be a perfect time to let everyone know what they're thinking. He said that? I mean, I'm not verbatim. Really, I have to say, I did not even, I completely miss that. I probably should listen to him when he speaks. Well, that's, that's not. a bad place to start for your job.

So we'll see if that happens later today. And also, so they were pretty tight with the agenda of this one. And some of the things got out Sunday afternoon. Like they're going to talk about the Olympics, how they felt about the whole thing. There'll be a season in review. And I heard that goaltender interference or goalie challenges weren't specifically on the agenda and then that one happened on Saturday. Ottawa Anaheim.

Yeah, Ottawa Anaheim. We were texting about it. Look, you know, I'm going to be honest about this. Like, if you guys saw me on the weekend, you know I didn't agree with the call. I'm like, this is, like, if you watch Stutzla, Shabbat scores the goal, and let me just say this, Thomas Shabbat has been fantastic since Sanderson got hurt. I wrote this down. on Elliot? Like we were talking...

You are such a liar. Hold on, hold on, yeah, because my point was going to be. Last pod, you talked about some of the Red Wings needing to go superhuman. He's kind of doing that right now with Ottawa. Over 27 minutes Saturday. 28 and a half. Look, I can show you my notes here. You heard me say it and you're like, I'm going to steal that.

No, no. You have plenty of bad ideas I can steal some other time. Do you think I steal any of your garbage? Anyway, no, it's true. Shabbat has been excellent. I thought he was great on Saturday against Anaheim, and from what I saw on Sunday, he was really good against San Jose.

I'll be honest, I was watching the baseball, the world baseball classic. That U.S. Dominican game was spectacular. Yes, and Elliot thought the final strike was right down the middle. Unbelievable. I didn't think you, I didn't say that. I did say that you can't take that pitch. You can when it's that far, that far out of the zone.

No, you guys take the bat off your shoulder. Anyway, great game. Anyway, it was a great game. I love Paul Skeens. I've got a man crush on Paul Skeens. Anyway, I, Shabbat, fantastic. I thought he was great on Sunday what I saw. But if you watch on that goal, Tim Stutzler, he thinks there's no way that goal is going to count.

Go back and watch Stutzla on that goal. Instead of celebrating, he is crestfallen. He lowers his head in shame. He's like, this is not going to count. I interfered with the goalie. Now, I will say this. There is a goalie, and a former goalie, I didn't ask him, so I'm not going to say. his name. He has told me he actually agrees with the philosophy that is being discussed here.

And that is there is a difference between prevented from being able to move across as the league and the referees felt Igor Shisterkin was on February 28th, the disallowed goal Manta. And this one, he felt that Willie Huso could have been able to stop the shot. Look, I didn't play goal, okay? I don't like to dismiss the expertise of people who did. I just think it is too confusing. It's just a bad look for the teams, the fans, everybody. Like, it doesn't, I don't like it.

I think if you go into the crease, like happen there and you touch the goalie, like maybe Huso can still get his paddock to make the save, but you have a guy colliding with you, right? And Stozel is not exactly small either, and it is distracting. I don't know. I just don't like the look of this. Anyway, that's my position on the matter, and we'll see where this goes here. I don't know.

I would rather both not count or both count. I want bullet. That play should be the same. Yes. That's all I think. Yes. I'm with you. And then the goal that Stutzlitt, we thought he had scored later in that game,

and that should have counted too. And you could tell Travis Green's going like, I can't risk this. Yes. If we're wrong, they could turn the whole game around. Like he knew how valuable those two points were. way with one before. We're winning. We're in control.

I don't need to be greedy. That's what he's thinking. He's like thinking, start the bus. Get us out of here. Do not tempt the hockey gods. You got one. Don't ask for a second. That's what Green's thinking.

So we mentioned this in our hit that we did here on Sunday for TV. You know, in the last three seasons, if you look at coaches, challenges for goalie interference, on average, about, it's a coin flip. Kind of around 50% calls were overturned. Like, they were successful. The challenge changed, changed the call. This season, it's like, to this point of the year, I think it's coming in just under 35%,

which to me seems like that's, that's a drop off and suggest there's now further confusion of, okay, what is precedent and what are we confident in what the call is actually going to be? And inevitably, once a season, this conversation comes up at least once a season. But when it's happening right now, and as you say that, play in Ottawa on Saturday, two days before the GM meetings get started, and we're just under a moment. month before game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs, just feels like there's more weight behind this discussion than

other points of the year. Right here, right now. I mean, you can, I think that some of the NHL people, it'll be interesting. You know, you get your backup. You don't like your, you don't like your integrity questioned or you don't like being told. You don't know what you're doing. You know, we'll see how it is this week. All of a sudden, it's probably a bit more interesting of a week than people expected it was going to be. Yes.

That much is very clear, especially when you say throw in the potential World Cup news here as well, Elliot. Speaking of Anaheim, so they turn it around. Before we do Mason McTavish, let's just quickly shout out David Alter. Okay. Yes. So he was there in Buffalo on Saturday. Yes. and he could not get to Minnesota on Sunday.

Big snowstorms. As a matter of fact, we, because we were broadcasting that game, not us, but Sportsnet, that was a Leaf Regional, Leaves Wild. They had to change staffing plans for that game because they knew days earlier that they were not going to be able to get people from Buffalo to Minnesota. So they had to hire locals, as they're called. People who don't necessarily travel with the Leafs,

regional team, but people who are based in Minnesota so they could staff the game. And Dave could not get from Buffalo to Minnesota and ending his streak of what, Kyle, 440 consecutive leaf games? Yes, regular season and playoffs. And it was a real source of pride to Dave. And, you know, there might be people out there say, who cares, so what? you missed your first leave game in 441 and you're lucky you get to go and whatever. Fine, you're entitled to your opinion. But I always saw it as Dave is a really conscientious guy

who took pride in it. To me, it's like attendance. Like, I was never a person who cared if I had perfect attendance in school. Like, I'm probably like most of you out there. If the more days of school I could miss, the happier I was. But I knew some people who took, Real pride in that. Like, I show up every day. And as I've gotten older, and I see the way, what kind of approach really works and what kind of approach makes people successful,

I have greater respect for how much Dave cared about that streak and how much it mattered to him. And I was sorry to see it go. And I know there were a few people on social who shouted out Dave. And I just, I know you feel the same, Kyle. I wanted to do it too because, It's real dedication to your craft.

And I like that. I really like that. Yes. The guy's self-starter and also I'm sure you've seen Elliot, his media meal review videos have really started to take off a little bit, which is a lot of fun. He's really skinny too. Guy doesn't eat.

Well, he's just, he's ripping all these high rocks competitions while he's on the road too. So it's a great balance. But he does eat. And he reviews all the media stops. And so that was kind of the joke. We knew, obviously, you know, Saturday Buffalo, the weather was going to be really bad in Minnesota and was he going to get there? And we were like, well, what happens if you get there just in time for the game, but the media meal is shut down?

Like, does it even matter at that point? Like, what's more important, the ability to do the media meal review or just to knock off the attendance of the game to keep the streak alive? But anyway, hell of a run. So what was his answer? What did you say? Well, it was like, you know, we had kind of joked. It's like it's the idea of, you know, that the catering crew, if they knew that he was coming in late, you know, they had like a plate with tin foil wrapped over it and it was sitting at his press seat up in the press box to say, sorry we missed you, hope you enjoy what we had prepared here tonight so he could still get some sort of review done to make it all work. Because that was, yeah, that's the thing now.

like teams know when he's coming. They put their best stuff forth for the media meal that night because they want to they want a chance to move up his rankings. Always good to be known for something. I got to tell you one quick, David, Alta story, and then we'll get back on the trail here. But so Dave's probably about 15 years younger than me. I went to go speak at Western when he was a student there

and he was working for the radio station. He said after the speech, he says, can I interview you? And I'm like, yeah, no problem. And, you know, pretty standard interview until he's, you know what one of his questions was? Do you have to have a big ego to work in your business? You were like, yes.

How did you know, loser? Yeah, good question. It was a good question. I'm sure some would have different answers than others. You just never know. I'm pretty self-aware. I answered it pretty honestly. Yeah, good.

All right. Mason McTavish, healthy, scratch. Oof. So you want to hear my theory? Yeah, let's go. What do you got? Well, you better because you're going to hear it anyway. Mason McTavish is this year's Jeremy Swayman.

Hmm. So last year, Jeremy Swamon signs on October 6th, just as the season's about to begin, he has a nightmare year. The Bruins and him say right off. Never got off on a great foot. Focus. Be ready.

Come back next year. Ugly contract dispute. Look at the year Swayman's having. Much, much better. Refocused, recharged, worried about what matters. Doesn't have to care about the contract. Mason McTavish this year signed on September 27th.

but a week before the season began. It just hasn't been right for them all year. All year. He's been taken off center. He's been moved to wing. He's really had trouble. It just hasn't worked. Nasty contract dispute.

You know, the one thing I would say to McTavish is you can always rewrite your narrative. You know, the ducks, they're very much in the playoff race. They're in great shape. They've got 15 games left. You know, either in those games or if you get to the postseason, you have a chance to change the way you feel about this season. But when I saw that he was a healthy scratch day,

I started looking deeper into some of the things around him. I checked the day he signed. I compared it to Swamen. And I just said, I wonder if this is just this year's version. and that whenever this is over, you sit down with Verbeek and Quenville and you say, all right, this was a write-off. What are you doing for next year?

Are you going to be swaming and come back much better, or is it going to be two in a row? And if it's two in a row, it's trouble. But the key thing is, he still has 15 important regular season games and the playoffs to fix it. but that's my early call. McTavish, 26 equals Swayman 2025.

That's a really good theory. So good that I could try to steal it and say, I had that written down myself, but I will admit, I did not have that one, spotted out. But it's the great, like as you say, with Anaheim on the path to be in the playoffs,

and Ruehman had to sit with this, Now, he went to the world championships last year, was great with the U.S. They won. That helped, I think, immensely get his mind back in the right place. But for McTavish now, with Anaheim on a path to getting into the postseason, should they get there, that's always the great equalizer, right? You go back, everyone goes back to zero. Great regular season can be undone by a bad playoffs, and the reverse can also be true also.

So maybe, maybe for McTavish may not even have to wait all the way till next season to rewrite the narrative. Right. That could be waiting for them in just over a month from now. I have to say, I'm also not surprised it happened now because the ducks were coming off a couple losses. And I heard when they lost in Toronto on Thursday night, Pat Verbeek, the GM, was D happy. He was unhappy. He was unhappy. He was really not pleased about how the ducks played in Toronto. And, you know, Verbeek looks unhappy when he's actually happy. So I can't imagine how disappointed he was. And then they lose in Ottawa. So I'm not hugely surprised. Like this kind of

move happened for this particular game. But when I saw it was McTavish. I admit, I did a double take. You know, should mention Jeffrey Vial. Oh, I feel bad for the Doc brothers. Both hurt. Colton, Hurt, and Edmondson. Kirby hurt by Vial in that one play.

But he made a heck of a play on the winning goal. Great forecheck. Got the puck to Cutter Goce, who scored the winner. That was a hell of a play. Like that's the kind of play that wins you Playoff games, that kind of a forecheck. Tough weekend for Montreal. Really tough weekend for Montreal.

You know, the one thing about Fowler is, you know, he'll be disappointed, but I still think he played pretty well. It's wide open for him to stay there the rest of the year. Like they traded for Hunter Shepard to play in the American hockey league, an extra goalie. As of the weekend, they hadn't

told Fowler he was staying up for the rest of the year, but there is a path for him. You can't yo-yo guys up and down. You only, as we talked on Friday's pod, you only have five call-ups, and that's until your HL team is out and the rocket are good. There's a path for Fowler to stay.

And even though they lost, that east is shaping up to be a real battle again, I think they're going to give Fowler every opportunity to show he deserves to be there. Now, you wanted to shout out Ali Lozoff, right? Yes, yes, I did, because intrepid reporting done on her part, one of the questions a lot of people were wondering about

after John Carlson was traded from Washington, as you know, for a long portion of his career, he has continued to wear that old school Bauer 4,500 helmet. Yes. Model that's been around for a long, long time and still holds up great. But in the year of 2026, there isn't the same stockpile as there once was, particularly in the appropriate color of the Anaheim Ducks orange. And so we wondered, would there be the right helmet, the right color, available for Carlson? She had the story during their Saturday game in Ottawa that, yes, they had located,

they had found the necessary stock to make it work. And there it was in all its glory, Sunday night in Montreal, as Carlson made his debut with the Ducks. About 23 minutes he played with that beautiful bucket. got the Bombay jacket afterwards as they celebrated a victory. Great start to the John Carlson era, however long it may end up being, but a great start with him and the ducks. Well done, Allie.

And we should also shout out all the equipment guys who got honored this weekend. Paul Boyer, Red Wings, 2,500 games. He's the equipment manager there. and San Jose, their assistant equipment manager, Tim Leroy, got the shark necklace in Montreal. That was his 25th game. And then on Sunday night, Tony DeCosta, who's the longtime equipment manager for the wild,

also 2,500 games. And it's that kind of thing, like finding the right helmet for John Carlson that makes those equipment people as great as they are. Phenomenal. And Carlson, by the way, got the Bombay jacket. And we're going to talk about Washington a little bit

and a move they made on Sunday, and John Carlson ties into that too. That is what's called a listener hook. Nicely done. Yeah. All right. A couple of other things we wanted to shout out, Anzay Copitar,

taken over Marcel Dion. It came in a tough loss for L.A. against the Devils, but all-time points leader in the history of the Los Angeles Kings, 1,308 and counting, as he continues to play out the final season of his career. So well done there. And also, you wanted to talk a little

of Bobby McMahon and his red hot start in Seattle. Yes, so Bobby McMahon, five points over two games, first time he's ever done that. The Cracken, after wobbling, get back-to-back weekend wins, and are in the wild card spot by one over the sharks, two over the kings, four over the predators, and five over the jets. The good thing for the Cracken is they are in excellent shape in the tiebreaker because of all the teams in the Pacific, They and the Oilers are tied for first with 25 wins. So like all these teams that are chasing the Cracken, Sharks, Kings, Predators, Jets, they're all behind them.

So Cracken have a good tiebreaker right now. Jets got a couple of wins. But Kyle, I'm not, the last time I said I believed in them, they crashed off the side of the road. So I'm not doing that again. I was going to say you have such an unhealthy relationship going with the Jets. Yes. It is reverse psychology. If I say I don't believe in them, they're better off.

I also want to, even though he lost, you know, Ottawa beat San Jose seven to four. Laurent Barsois played his first NHL game in, what, three years? Right, yes. So it was a heck of a comeback for him, even though it didn't go the way they wanted it to go. And boy, did Celebrini look angry at the end of that particular game. I looked up all of a sudden, could Dallas on a 15-0-1 tear or whatever they on,

could they actually catch Colorado? They're three points back. The Avalanche have a game in hand, but the Avalanche have them clobbered on the first tiebreaker. They've got six more regulation win. So the math says Dallas can't do it. But to be honest, Kyle, I didn't think anyone was even going to make it interesting. But they're there.

They've at least made it interesting. You know, we talked on the last show about Lucas Raymond and the Red Wings who have to step up. Someone sent me a note. We'll figure out where this is probably at some point. but they kind of hinted to me that the red wings are like being held together by duct tape, string, and glue. Like, you know, they're constantly calling up people before games. You know, we know Larkin and Copper out, then a couple more guys got hurt. Peron just came off IR, but they keep bringing guys up and down from Grand Rapids.

I think the Red Wings, like, they are really on fumes. Now they got a great point the other night against Dallas. They fought back to get a point. But, you know, someone just said, go easy on some of those guys. They are really being held together piecemeal. And, you know, let's just go over quickly. We look at the races. We talked about the West.

Look at the East now. Pittsburgh 81, Islanders 81, Bruins, Red Wings, 80, Columbus, we've been talking about them for a couple pods, 79. Now Ottawa is 77. Yeah. And you talk about that tiebreaker. The Sends have a great tiebreaker number, 28. 28 regulation wins.

Yeah, 28 is a great number. The story's been. They just need to get some saves. And now they are. I know, you know, since fans didn't love the way, the winning goal against Montreal last Wednesday happened. But by and large, certainly since coming back from the Olympics, they're getting saves.

And that's, and, and lo and behold, look at all the wins they're piling up. Yep. Big win Islanders, a really big win on the weekend for the Islanders. They needed that. How about Dan Mews for Coach of the Year potentially, malking out five games? And just personally, I also, also wondered what Malkin was thinking after he saw that Gouda's suspension.

I'm sure he was very mild-mannered about it. But Malkin suspended five games Crosby out of the lineup and the penguins held on. You could have actually made an argument they deserved a better fate in some of those games, but they held on. They're still in there. Yeah. And now you've got, and Columbus, they've effectively. got two access points potentially, right?

Like whether it's through the wild card or through their own division with them just two points behind the Islanders and the Penguins as we wake up on Monday morning. But bad tie break number though for the Blue Jackets. Bad tie break number. Yeah, so you've got to do it outright.

That's not good. That would come into play anywhere. But Dan Muses, so I was, I had this written down because Cooper, I think, for a lot of this year is my coach of the year. and I confess that I think that often Cooper loses to coaches who do a lot out of nowhere. But if Pittsburgh gets in, I mean, Mews, there's a lot of votes, a lot of votes, especially, and by the way,

I was happy to see Logan Cooley from Utah was okay, because when I first saw him going to that net, I was worried we weren't going to see him the rest of the year. Oh, gosh. Let me ask. So we don't vote for coach of the year. Let me ask you if San Jose makes the playoffs, where does Celebrini coming on your ballot? For the heart?

Yeah. You know what, Elliot? I would have to see some numbers, some data that I hadn't even considered to this point to have him anywhere other than at the top right now. Okay. I'm with you. It's what, like a 50 point gap between him and Will Smith on the team? Like the percentage of goals that he is a factor in,

you talk about being most valuable to their team. Did you see Gretzky last week? Jersey said. About Schaefer? Yes. Yeah. And I would have no problem with him getting votes either. I just, you can only have one guy in that first slot.

And if San Jose gets in, I'm going to have a really tough time going anywhere other than Celebrania. I got to be honest. I can already hear the Tampa fans getting wound up. The Coutherov disrespect. I know. I breathe life to the conversation. You have good weather, okay? We've been covered in snow all winter, okay?

Just be happy down there. Now we come to the other side of Florida. We're covered in rain. It's raining all the time. It's crazy. What's going on here? I was thinking that Bill Zito, the Panthers, always gets shafted at these meetings because he never gets to stay at this nice hotel. He's at home.

And then I figure he's probably just consoling himself with two Stanley Cup rings. Yes. He's doing just fine. He's doing just fine. And I mean, yes, this is a very nice place we're staying, the hotel we're at. but I'm sure he's got decent living quarters as well. Yeah, I would bet. All right, you want to do a final thought?

Sure, let's do that. Okay. Time now for the final thought, presented by the Toyota BZ, go all-electric and a winter-ready Toyota BZ at your local dealer today. And you had the listener hook earlier on in the pod, Elliot, Cole Hudson. He is signed with the Washington Capitals, the three-year entry-level contract, the B.U. Terrier's season came to an end, bowing out to Yukon, and the Hockey East

playoffs finishes his final year of college hockey, 32 points in 35 games. But the curiosity here is, how does the entry-level deal break down work for Hudson and the Capitals? And how soon should we expect him in the fold in Washington? I think you're going to see him right away. the listener hook was actually also about John Carlson. I heard Carlson sent Hudson quite a text. Like just a, even though Carlson's been traded, he's not in Washington anymore. The word was he sent a great text to Hudson,

just welcoming him to the NHL. Always love Carlson. And that's another reason why. So a year ago, the Capitals did something really interesting. when they signed Ryan Leonard out of college, they gave him a consmite bonus. And people were like, yeah, Ryan Leonard, he's going to win the consmite. And they were kind of laughing.

And what we realized is that the Capitals worked with Leonard's representative, who was Matt Cater. And the way it works is under current rules, rules, all contracts can't increase by more than 100% from year to year. So when they put the bonus in on Leonard's contract last year, which was the first year he signed with the capitals, it allowed his eligible bonuses to increase. It was a little trick that people who were... are much smarter than me when it comes to cap workings figure out. And I'm going to mention him the cap guru is a guy by the name of Don Fishman. So even though Ryan Leonard was extremely

unlikely to win the Calder, he was still eligible and it allowed the capitals to make him eligible for more bonus money later in his contract. They've done the same thing here. with Hudson. I'm not sure if for Hudson, they made it a Kahn-Smith bonus or a Calder Trophy bonus. It's one or the other. I can't remember which one it is. But by doing it, again, the capitals have made it so that he can earn more bonus money later in his contract. whichever one it is, he's unlikely to win it. I mean, I think we know who's probably going to win the Calder Trophy this year. And the capitals aren't even guaranteed to make the playoffs if it is the Con Smyth. But it's a really, really smart move by team and agent.

His representatives are Sean Coffey and Ryan Barnes. So I just think it's I think it's really smart. I think it's a really smart thing that the capitals do. I think it's a really smart thing that the agents do. And I just think you always use whatever workarounds you can find in the CBA to make things work. And Hudson, Cole Hudson, I'm really excited to see him. I hear great things, kind of a weird year for their school, really disappointing season.

You know, Jay Pandolfo talking at the end of the year about how he just couldn't get the most out of the team, but that doesn't dim what anybody thinks about Cole Hudson as a player. You know, Hudson was the 43rd pick in the 2024 draft. His bonus package over the last five drafts, is more than all but three defensemen, Schaefer, Levsinov, and Namich. So think of all the defensemen taken higher than Hudson at 43rd overall in the last five drafts, and only three of them have a higher bonus package than him.

That's quite a compliment to what people think of his ability. By the way, Barnes and Coffee, they also represent Lane Hudson. And I heard, although this was unconfirmed to me, but what I heard is they also now represent David Reinbocker of the Canadians. I believe that is a recent development. So a lot going on there, but I'm excited to see Cole Hudson play. I love watching Lane play, and I'm excited to see Cole play. and I'm excited to see Cole play.

By the way, not cold play, but Cole play. By the way, too, I had some Islanders fans asking about Cole Iserman. I heard that that was not going to happen as quickly as Hudson, and there would be a few more days before people kind of figured out where that would go. The only bummer is we won't see Washington versus Montreal. all the rest of this year. Yeah, that's too bad. But it is quite fascinating though, Elliot.

Like both of the brothers between Cole and Lane, neither were first round guys at their draft, went a little bit later. And by the time they come out of college, you know, they're looked at as one of the upper echelon prospects in the entire league. to your point, the bonus package that Cole was able to secure because of the belief that the capitals have in them, it's quite impressive. It's quite impressive between the two of them. And the potential that now Cole has in Washington. It's, they still think they've got a chance to try to get into the playoffs.

So I imagine the way Spencer Carver, he likes to approach things. He'll get plenty of opportunity to do the things that got them so excited in the first place. Okay, that was the final thought presented by the Toyota BZ. With that, we'll take our first break and come back with the thought line on the other side. 32 thoughts. The podcast continues from Florida after this. All right, we're back. Another edition of the thought line.

I am indoors, Frieges Outdoors, enjoying the humid and dense Florida air. and another dense thought line here coming your way. First, though, thoughts on the thought line. There's a lot of density here. Dense weather, dense thought line, dense hosts. Yes, that's why we are the hot air. Any shoutouts? Yes, there's a couple of shoutouts that I would like to give.

First of all, flying back from on Long Island this week, met a couple of of guys on my flight who are big fans of the pod. I wanted to shout out Joe from Kitchener and Ryan from Toronto. Two big fans. I met them. It was awesome to meet them. Nice.

I wanted to when I tweeted out the Judd Moldaver comment about the suspension to Goudis this week. I probably should have mentioned in the last segment

but I completely forgot. So I'm just doing it here. I had a number of people who sent me Jackie Child's memes from Seinfeld. This is preposterous. This is ludicrous. I laugh at each and every one of them. Every time I saw it, I laughed. It didn't matter if it was the ninth one I saw. I laughed. So I wanted to thank the people who said that apoplectic. Oh, they were they were great. just fantastic. I also wanted to shout out WizKid Brandon, who pointed out that we once had a conversation about do players ever split

pucks for when they reach milestones and two of them do it on the same play. Yeah. And last week, the Rangers, Mika Zabanajad, got his 800th career point on the same play that,

Adam Fox got his 400th career point. So Zubinijed was asked who gets the puck, and he smiled and he goes, seniority, I guess. So we'll have to follow that up and see what occurred. But Brandon, thank you for pointing that out. And I also got an Insta question, which I cannot find. So I'm sorry, I can't credit you. I don't know what I did with it.

But Kyle, the question was, basically, come on, you've got to let us know, what does Kyle's supplement bag look like? Yeah, because you painted this insane picture last week. You basically had a pharmacy in your Milan hotel room. I had two things. I had two things. That's it. Now you want to know they are? What they are?

It's up to you. So what? Well, I don't mind. I don't know. I don't know. Like, I don't know if Sportsnet does drug testing. I mean, if you're on the same stuff, Amber and BX is on, no way that's legal. Right.

And they're still on the air every week. So I don't think they are testing. So I guess it doesn't matter. No, I like to have electrolytes on the road with me. I use a brand called Adapt, which is started by two guys. teammates at Clarkson University, one of them actually from Ottawa, and they've now started this electrolyte company and there's more and more athletes, hockey players, they're using it. It's very clean.

I hope you get paid for this. No, no, no. Anyway, I just think they're a little small upstart group, but I love their commitment to finding clean ingredients and going about it the right way. So very good there. And yeah, I just, I happen to have, because I really don't travel with it regularly, but for whatever reason I decided, I guess because I took a big suitcase with me, but I took some creatine with me. My wife actually takes it quite regularly. She finds it's really good. Like, I think there's,

there's a lot of stuff out there now about positive effects for the brain, you know, beyond just, you know, the added oomph that can give you if you're training. But there's some other advantages to it as well. So I thought brain was going to be tested a lot over there in Italy. So maybe I'd try a little bit of that every morning. I don't know if it made much of a different. but we got through it so it didn't hurt. All right. So it was those two things. That's the pharmacy.

There's cheat code Kyle for you. And creatine. I'll have RX out in front of my hotel door now. That's very good. Okay. You ready? All right. Yeah, let's go.

Okay. From Ricky, Teddy, and McKenzie from just outside Boston. Hello. 32 Thoughts crew. My name is Ricky from just outside Boston and love the show. My nine-year-old son, Teddy, and eight-year-old daughter, McKenzie, absolutely love listening to the thought line each week on the way to practices. When you guys do trivia, we pause the show to each take our own guests and they go nuts if they get it right. We even saved up four thought lines to listen to for our long drive to Lake Placid for Teddy's tournament back in January. He won gold. so the drive was totally worth it. Yes, you're winning all the golds down there, we know. Congratulations, rub it in, rub it in some more. I really appreciate having a show I can listen to with the kids

and get them excited about hockey on those long rides to the rink. But that brings us to our question Teddy came up with listening to the trade condition talk surrounding the Nazim Cadry deal. You mentioned, Elliot, the condition on the 2027 second round pick going to Calgary was that it would be the better of the Minnesota or Colorado pick. Does that mean that now Colorado is not allowed to trade either of those selections? For example, if next year Minnesota is having a bad year, and Colorado knows the wild pick would be early in the second round,

could they trade it to someone else and then tell the flames, guess you're getting the avalanche pick now, or does that Cadre deal condition mean that Colorado cannot trade either of those picks until the Flames deal is finalized and complete. Keep up the great work and good luck with the raccoons. Well, thank you very much. And yes, there was a lot of great raccoon content again this week. It's unbelievable how much this has survived all season and how many I get every week.

Ricky Teddy McKenzie, first of all, thank you for listening, being big fans of the pod. And thank you for the question. Basically, Teddy, the answer to this is, Colorado can't do anything with that. pick without Calgary and the NHL's approval. So in theory, if they wanted to go to Calgary and say, look, we need that pick for something. Is there a way that you can allow us to do it or is there something else we can trade you to make that happen?

Calgary could say yes. And if the Avalanche did do something with that, they would need to go to the NHL, get it approved. And the NHL would say the flames, are you okay with this? can this happen? So the answer is they could, in theory, do something with it, but not without the flames and the flames permission and the NHL's confirmation of that permission.

Excellent. And continued, good luck. And success. The thought line trivia on top of the hockey. And in both of your young hockey careers, nine and eight, you got a lot of great years ahead of you. Yes. Excellent. All right, this one from Sean. Gentlemen, I love a good tilt as much as the next person, but I've noticed an uptick in players throwing punches after the player they're scrapping with has gone down. Sometimes it even continues when the player on the ice is shielding their head with their arms, clearly indicating they're done with the fight. In recent memory, Forsling on Mosier, Hagel on Dahlin, and Hartman on Weeger. It infuriates me whenever I see it. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like anyone has gone.

gotten injured from this, but I think it's only a matter of time. There's already a rule for instigation, and there are also rules for protecting defenseless players. Should the league introduce a rule for excessive violence? Keep up the good work. So I'll start here because I asked some questions today to someone who is familiar in this space. And the point they made to me was... Was it Biaxia? Maybe. Maybe not.

Never reveal your sources, yes. Did you ask these questions while you were stuffing each other full of creatine? I think that's the greatest revelation of all of this, how you pronounce creatine. You really have the word. It's not my fault that they do a lot of work there. It's not my fault. They pronounce it improperly. Yeah, I just add it to the list, man. I love how I said I asked someone about this.

You're like, there's only one person who would even consider getting back to you. It has to be Kevin. So the info I got was here, Elliot, is that if it was two guys that were known as quote-unquote fighters, if that was kind of baked into their game when it was called. upon, that's when you rarely see it. There's a mutual respect there and understanding of that role and when the time comes to lock horns that way. But, I mean, really, like the examples that Sean listed here, those are out of retaliation or out of pure rage of trying to get even. And in a number of those cases, guys that maybe aren't afraid to do it, but perhaps it's not

so much attached to their game. the way it was put forth to me was just like it's it's a different set of circumstances guys that don't fight as often and there's that feeling of i got to get even here and especially if a guy falls and loses balance early it's like i haven't even the score yet and they keep swinging away and you know adrenaline's at an all time high the emotions redlining uh so instead of you know or a guy like ryan reeves always talked about when he fights heart rate's got to stay level he's got to stay calm. He can't get himself wound up. But if you're not used to be in that situation, understandably, everything is wound up and you just keep going, even if the guy has gone down.

So I think there's two different types of situations when you see it versus when you don't. I agree with you, Sean. I don't love seeing it either. And also, I have noticed it a little more often, but I think the common theme is, is that it's out of retribution and maybe involving guys that don't do it as regularly as some others that still exist in the league. Another thing I would say to, Sean, is that the referees and linesmen, and linesmen can do it in this case, can always add penalties if they think a player has gone over the line. You know, you can give a misconduct, you can give a game misconduct, if there's a deliberate attempt to injure.

If they think a player has either been told to stop fighting and keeps throwing punches or they do something really that is foul for lack of a better term, you can always give them a penalty and let the league deal with it. So that's the other thing I would say here. If I think the code is broken, the on-ice officials can do something about it, write it up and speak to the league after the game and say, this is why we did this. And then it could potentially rise to the level of supplemental discipline.

Very good. Okay. Brian from Boston, not just outside, right in the heart. Right in the heart. Rickie Todd and McKenzie are from outside Boston. Brian is in the city limits.

Okay. Hi, guys. Love the show. Been listening to it since it was six thoughts. and it was just Elliot standing on a soapbox on a street corner yelling out trade rumors. Thoughtline questions were submitted via telegraph. How do you know that's even changed? He's got to get it out the other five days of the week.

We're not recording this. My question is about these newfangled matchups where both teams wear their colored jerseys. Who gets the final say on these could, two well-meaning marketers? marketing interns set up the Bruins wearing their sunburst gold jerseys against the Predators Yellow. Does the referee union get a say if color patterns make it hard to quickly tell teams apart? Would the players union ever intervene on behalf of their own guys? Could a crotch crickety, old-timey coach simply say, no, we're not doing this and send his team out in their white jerseys instead? And he also included Morse code at the bottom of this, Elliot, that Griffin was kind enough to

decode and it says bring back white home jerseys. That's outstanding. So remember we talked about this when there is the occasional time when a team will wear their darks on the road and the home team will wear white and it's something that's set up well in advance. Both teams have to agree to it. The league has to agree to it. And that's really all that has to be done.

And it's a very similar scenario here now where we've seen it, you know, Montreal and the avalanche wearing the old Nordique jerseys. We saw it was a Detroit and the Rangers wearing their centennial jerseys, both colors. And it's as simple as that where if the teams are going, we're open to this and the league doesn't have an issue, then they proceed. So an idea of doing the yellow Bruins and the yellow predators, one or if not all parties would look at that and say, we're not doing this for all the obvious reasons. But that's really all it comes down to.

Great job. Whites at home? Nicely done. You into that? I love, I grew up like that. So I'm a big supporter of it. I love whites at home. That's what I grew up with.

Yeah, I don't mind at all. All right. Yeah, I would mind. I like to do that in Morse code though, Brian. And I like the fact that Griffin figured out exactly what you were doing. Yeah. It's about time. We had some intelligence on this podcast.

And quite fittingly, none of it came from Kyle or I. Right on cue. And on brand. Okay. Voice Mail from Unnamed. I wanted to know how many players in the league actually listen to the pod. So I don't know if you guys have a good idea of that. But, yeah, like, you have any good stories of a player hearing something on the pod?

And then it comes back to you. Thanks, guys. The honest answer is, I don't know. But I do know that if I say something that people don't like, I sure hear about it. I just thought this voicemail came at a perfect time because... Yes, because this happened to you last week. Yes, I was. in Buffalo, of course, over the weekend. I got in there early enough on Friday to go to their

practice that day. And one player walking by me in the hall afterwards as he was leaving the rinks turns around and goes, is your lesser half here today, too, or is it just you? I said, no, Elliot's at home. Thanks for your concern. And on top of that, another player approached me. And remember we were discussing the idea of if penalties occurs late enough in overtime, like inside under two minutes that whatever the extra time bleeds over so the full two minutes or a double minor or a major gets played out you remember that yes yes yeah and they said uh you know you guys were talking about who would be the group that would put their arms up and say not for us i said yeah who would that be he goes the gole union and i said oh yeah i said purely selfish reasons yes

yeah well this i thought okay you know extra work under duress you You know, your hips go through enough and the knees and all that throughout the regular season, you know, an extra few minutes and overtime being in the crouch, like I understand, you know, not being excited. He's like, oh, he goes, it's not even so much that. It's the extra goal against. I don't need that on the GAA because it's a different if you give up goals in the shootout as opposed to what an overtime. So I thought that was a pretty good mind. I am so impressed that somebody came to you and thought of that.

I didn't even think of that. I am so impressed. this goalie, whoever he is, would have made an excellent lawyer. I hope he's as good a goalie as he could be a lawyer. The honest answer is that I know there are some who listen. I just have no way of knowing. I really have no way of knowing.

There were a lot who read. I don't know how many listen. All right. Mistique isn't bad either. Okay, one final one here from Jay. Hello, Mr. Friedman, Bukascus, and Sharmati. I am an Ontario-born, diehard Montreal Canadiens fan. Ever since the days, a young rookie named Patrick Waugh made his debut with the team.

Now, in light of the haves, calling up rookie Jacob Fowler this past week where the young man handedly stoned the Ottawa Senators, sorry, not sorry, Kyle. I had a thought as the season rolls towards the playoffs, which leads to my question. With Montreal now rostering two rookie goalies in Dobish and Fowler, the two Jakes, how many NHL teams have ever entered the playoffs relying on two rookie netminders to backstop them? Enjoy your weekend, fellas, and thanks in advance. The one name that immediately jumped into my head was,

in 1980, 81. So the info I got back, we were just looking at the last 30 years. So since the 96 playoffs through to now, there's been three teams that have had it. Boy. Most recently in 2014. Neither goalie still plays on this team,

but both remain in the league. Really narrowly. Yeah, okay. I'm still thinking about it. That's not like the Ben Bishop Lightning, is it? No, they're not still in the league. What am I talking about? Well, that's okay.

And Bishop had been around a little bit at that point, but, uh, Yeah. You just said they were still in the league. Another sunny destination, though. That is a terrible answer, though, I have to say. That's not Frederick Anderson with the ducks, is it? That's the one. What's the other?

It was John Gibson there at the time? there you go that's right because Gibson came in and he got like two shutouts against the kings and darrell Sutter started calling him the greatest goal tender ever oh yeah he was mocking all of the media I remember that oh that's a good one yes so that was the most recent one ducks got to the second round the other two let me just tell you what years 2008 2001 2008 and 2001. Okay, I'm not going to lie. I'm looking at the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs.

I'm just going to look at the teams because off the top of my head, I can't think of who they are. Was Tim Thomas a rookie technically at this time? Well, he doesn't appear in the answer here. Okay, so that's a no. I'm going to say no. Would it be Kerry Price and Yarrow-Halak? Yes, it was.

what. All right. All right. They all put out to the second round of the year. Okay, 2001. Again, I'm looking at the teams. I'm not taking credit for seeing this off the top of my head. I would say both goalies. Yes. Neither won a cup, but both had very successful careers. and one of the goalies. Yes. One rookie of the year that season. Was Nobakov a rookie that year?

He was considered a rookie. Yeah. He had 11 games the year before. So it's him and, well, it's either, I can't, was it was it, was it Kipersoff or Toskola at that time? Kipersoff. Okay. Wow. I needed the hint.

I needed the hint. Wow. Good question. Very good. Yes. Steve Shields was still with the organization then too. Oh, wow. Good question. Really good question. Very good. Yes. Love trying to wrap this up with trivia when we can. And that was a beauty from Jay. So, merci for that. Thank you for the submission. Thank you to everyone who reached out. Griffin, whenever he primes the thought line batch as he sends the email to Dom and I, he was like, this is strong batch here.

this one strong batch i like that always love a strong batch yes 1-833 311 32 32 if you'd like to leave a voicemail or you can email us as well 32 thoughts at sportsnet dot ca we'll take one more break and we'll wrap up this edition of 32 thoughts the podcast from florida back after this all right before we go wanted to give you a heads up of scotia bank wednesday at hockey this week it could really be a big one when you consider the eastern conference playoff race is the Ottawa Senators into D.C. to face the Caps. 7 E.T. 4 Pacific Time. David Amber will take you through the Hockey Central pregame show.

Puck drop a little after 7.30 Eastern Time from Capital One Arena. Also Wednesday night, if you so choose a little later on at 930 ET, 730 Mountain Time. St. Louis Blues are in Calgary to face the flames. That game is over on Sportsnet 1. Taking us out today. a track from Modern Morals, who are a London, Ontario, indie rock band, born out of the city's early 2000s local rock scene. Their track, Yitzbin, first debuted live in studio on CHRW, 94-9 Western Radio at Western University.

Yes, the same campus where everyone's favorite insider began his own journey. Listeners could look for future show announcements on their Instagram profile at Modern Moral. Morals 519. And a happy belated birthday to Mike. Hope you had a great day last week. Here's Modern Morals and Yitzpin on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I was the one who loved you down and never laughed. I couldn't bear the thought of living with that.

So heavy. I'd to keep persistence at Monday. The gateway to reason.