32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Which Teams Are Laying It on the Line?

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman begin the podcast by recapping Thursday night's overtime thriller between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vegas Golden Knights. This is followed by analysis of the Capitals-Hurricanes Game 2 (11:37). They then take a moment to break down what we've seen so far between the Panthers and Leafs (17:41). The Final Thought focuses on Game 1 between the Jets and Stars (28:23).Kyle and Elliotte answer your voicemail and email submissions via the Thought Line (34:06).The final segment focuses on news and notes from around the NHL. Kyle and Elliotte begin with the Anaheim Ducks hiring Joel Quenneville as their next head coach (47:23). Elliotte touches on the latest in the LA Kings' GM search (55:46) before discussing the Canucks' head coach vacancy (56:58). Kyle and Elliotte have some fun with Utahans unveiling their new nickname (1:01:18).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

Crossbar McDavid a goal post here in the OT McDavid beats one man to the gate. Drive title scores! Game two to Edmonton. Final five-four in overtime. Welcome to 32 Thoughts of the Podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X. Dom, Elliott and Kyle back with you. Elliot, you know the old saying, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. On Thursday night what happened in Vegas was just plain awesome from an

entertainment standpoint. I know during one of the intermissions you pointed out one of the major differences for the Edmonton Oilers this year in the playoffs is they are no longer struggling to keep their heads above water when McDavid and Dry-Siddle are not out on the ice but every now and then it's okay for your top dogs to deliver in the biggest moment. McDavid to Dry-Siddle in overtime, Dry-Siddle's second overtime winner of these playoffs alone, and the Oilers take a 2-0 series lead back home. Great game.

Great game. Kyle, before we start getting really into the podcast, I want to know though, are you right now laying it on the line? Aren't we all at this point? For those of you who don't live in Canada. That's why I'm sleep deprived. The Rogers promo for these playoffs is the great triumph song, Lay It On The Line. And let's just say you hear it pretty often.

Every commercial break. Lay it on the line it's a great song and they updated the video and like they weren't being lazy they updated the video after the first round but that's all I could think of it's in my head I cannot stop hearing that song there's the one good post online of the video just from Breaking Bad, Jesse one of the characters, and it's that song playing in the background, and it's video of him from the show. Anyway, it's very fitting. So I want to know, everyone out there, are you laying it on the line? Oilers fall behind, doesn't matter. They've got them right where they want them.

The Oilers cannot win a game unless they are losing first. And they did it again. What an incredible game, incredible game. Pickard, one of the greatest stories of the postseason so far so the thing about Pickard that's incredible and I give our credit to our Sportsnet stats crew for figuring this out his save percentage in the first period came in these playoffs 875 not very good he gave up two goals he's now down to 870 his save percentage in the second period also not very good. He gave up two goals. He's now down to 870. His save percentage in the second period also not very good.

816. He gave up one goal in this game and actually went up to 833. But in the third period he was at 956. And in overtime he was at 1000. Well tonight he did give up two in the third so he's down to a mere mortal 926 but he's now 14 for 14 overtime still a thousand and Vegas had four chances in about the first two minutes which were grade A glorious chances. He stole this one for them. Again as you said theers continued to look great without McDavid and Dry Sight along the ice. I think by the time they were in the second period, I have to check what happened in the third period. But in the second period, it was 15 to 8 at one point that the Oilers were outscoring opponents without McDavid and Dryside along the ice at 5 on

5, which never happens. As we mentioned in the last pod, they were minus 20 during the season. But on that one play, Eichel, who had a phenomenal game, I don't care how good a defensive player Eichel is and how good a two-way player he is, and he's an MVP candidate and he's a Selkie candidate, even if's a Selke candidate. Even if you're one of the best skating defensemen in the NHL, if you get caught in open ice with him, you don't have a chance.

It didn't matter. Oh no. And you know, I was thinking, this is a huge loss for the Oilers if they don't win the game, because they score four times with McDavid and Dreissel not being huge factors and Aiden Hill struggling and then the one

moment Vegas broke down on that with them on the ice and Corey Perry makes a great play to get him in the puck they get absolutely scorched and lose the hockey game. Man and it's just thinking like the the eyes Chico they never lie when the camera showed McDavid after the goal went in at his reaction looking across at Leon it was like oh this was this was a moment here on Thursday night it was it was pretty spectacular as they're realizing the the opportunity going up 2-0 out of the gate taking both on the the road in Vegas and again I go back to I pointed it out after game one Elliot but I saw again before game two Leon in Vegas once again had the toucan going over to the rink and it's worth it it was like 33 degrees. He had the toque on again,

like that's my point. I don't know if he can take it off now going into a game. We're entering the middle of May here. It's June 23rd, game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals and Leon Dreisleidel is still in his toque. You're right, it's like Willie Nylander's suit. He's won three games in a row in that suit. I understand you can't change a winning lineup. A lot of concerns for Vegas. They split up the big line that won them the series at the end of Minnesota. They put Barbachev back with Stone and Eichel. Patrangelo was back in the game and early on he looked fantastic. He broke up a two on one in the last minute of the first period.

He scored. He had a great chance early in overtime and then I don't know if he'd been having too much better drill and it kicked in but all the others got he made two giveaways that the others hit two posts on before they won it. And you know that's the one thing. I still think Vegas is going to be better. I think this series is far from over. But you have to be concerned if you're Vegas two games in.

Again, McDavid and Dreissel were not the superstars. They were on the winning goal, but for a lot of game two, it was the other Oilers who carried them and Vegas couldn't win the game. Like I said before, the Oilers would have been disappointed about that game, but I think if you're Vegas and you actually did use lose, you're really disappointed because you're looking at those two guys and saying they didn't really combine for much and even strength until overtime. And we still lost. We gave up four goals to them before they combined for what an even strength point like you're looking at that and you're like, oh my God, how did that happen to us? Right. And they got through the five minute major

in overtime. They got through that. And then you talk about concern for Vegas, the Arvidsson Braden McNabb play that could have very well been a penalty. You look at the way. Should have been a penalty. Absolutely. We said on the air right after. Got in between the legs. That was a miss. That should have been a penalty. It just didn't look good. I mean it's a trip and look like there's no deliberate attempt to injure. Arvidsson's racing for the puck but it is a trip and it should have been a penalty and it was a missed call and they score right away. I don't think people were asking me do you think WAAA is gonna get suspended. I don't think so. Frederick came back that's number one and that's a pretty severe penalty to be thrown out of a Stanley Cup playoff game in

overtime. The Vegas did an unbelievable job. The Oilers first unit power play couldn't do anything against them early on. I thought their second unit group, and that fits with the theme of how much their depth is helping them, I thought they really stabilized the next couple of minutes, and then that first unit got really scary again. But I don't think Waz getting suspended. Do you? No, I don't. I think for the reasons you laid out, like the fact that he was thrown out of the game in an incredibly big spot already. And Frederick coming back, I think five and the major settles that going forward. You know, I like what Bruce Castee said post game. He says you have to keep playing. It's just when one thing happens right next to the other, it's not A plus B equals C, but it is A happened, then B happens and C you lose. So it's frustrating. But in a lot of ways, I can't believe Edmonton won this game. It goes back to my old saying, they don't ask you how, they ask you how many.

It's a win from Edmonton. You start the bus, you go to the airport, you fuel up the plane, you get out of town, you go back home and you get prepared for game three. You're going to win games like that in the postseason, but it's a fortunate, fortunate win for the Oilers. You make your own luck sometimes. Calvin Picker did not start six in a row all season.

He started six in a row here in these playoffs and won them all. So Edmonton goes home with a 2-0 series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights. The other game on Thursday night... By the way, Kyle, I was concerned for the Oilers before the game because did you see the Knights theatrical opening? Which I love. I love all this Vegas stuff. Yes. Yes. That was very well done. Did you see the fight between the Knights and whatever bandit they had for the Oilers? Yes, yes, it was great. It was fantastic, but I was concerned because the Oilers only had a flagpole while the Knight

was armed with the shield and the sword. I said the Oilers does not have a chance in this skirmish and I was I thought maybe for Edmonton it was gonna be a metaphor for the game. No, well they didn't have enough to beat Vegas on this night but it it wasn't true they were just fine. Yes some nights when you have McDavid and Drysettle in the right spot all you need otherwise is a flagpole and you're still okay. The earlier game on Thursday Washington and Carolina so the Capitals looked a lot more like themselves and I had there's a monster game for Tom Wilson. Like we saw a couple times in the first round,

him put his stamp on things. And Thursday night was Wilson's announcing his arrival in this series. Yes. Big hit on Svechnikov early on. Took the hit from Jordan's stall. You saw him blocking shots. There was some good plays he made defensively.

Unreal assist on the John Carlson goal when they were a man up and then the empty netter to ice it. So in a lot of ways on the backs of Tom Wilson here, the Washington Capitals evening the series before it shifts to Raleigh. Tom Wilson game, no question about that. This is going to be a long series. I think we all thought it was going to be a long series going in. Nothing that's happened in the first two games in Washington is convinced

as anything, but it's going to be a long series. Wilson had an incredible shift there where he clobbered Svechnikov, like legitimately blew him up and then went back and made a phenomenal defensive play, knocking the puck away from Orlov when he had a great scoring chance. Jordan Martinuk, by the way, he was really smart. There was one play where Wilson could have pasted him into next year too, but Martinuk saw who was coming and he ducked and avoided it before he got the worst of it.

That was almost a textbook on, uh-oh, he's out here, isn't he? And he realized it was. I thought the other thing that was big there is Washington scored a power play goal. Carolina was 19 for 19 on the Pendley kill before John Carlson scored. That's great for the Hurricanes, bad for whoever plays them. So obviously massive that the Capitals got the power play goal there. McMichael, by the way, he also made a huge defensive play late in that game. I mean there were a lot of teams going all out in these playoffs and that was an

all-out game. I was a little surprised that Ryan Leonard didn't play He'd been giving them a lot of positive emotion and positive minutes during the postseason I thought but You got to win games. You got to ice the best roster You think you can and I don't necessarily think it's bad that the kid gets a reset I don't think that this is the last we'll see of him and you know for me for Carolina I don't panic after that like I said 1-1 long series they're going home we have not finished doing deep dives on this series that's for sure this is the one of all of the series at the beginning I was most

confident would go the longest and there's nothing I've seen in the first two games that makes me feel any differently. It's funny like there was not a ton going on in the first 40 minutes of this game on Thursday and then like once it came to nothing bang it was like opened everything up Carolina started pushing more seemed like the physicality ramped up and then it becomes two to one and the push was on again and man it was just like a very very entertaining finish. You mentioned Connor McMichael like he's been a fun player to watch I found in these playoffs like there's really good offensive touch there the goalie scores

was incredible though I mean bad bounce for Shane Gossis, bear, geez, friendly fire up into your throat and you're reacting to that. And next thing you know, McMichael's in on a breakaway, but there's the offensive touch, there's bite to his game. You mentioned the defensive play too. This has been in maybe not as loudly of a way as some others, but a nice little coming out party for McMichael. Like he's been a very big part of their successes they've got along here for the Caps. No, McMichael that's one of the things that I think has really rejuvenated them over the past season. Yes they went out and they got great players Matt Roy, Chickron, that's Deft Logan Thompson but they've injected a little

bit of youth into their group now we mentioned Leonard I'm glad you brought up Michael because he's obviously been there longer and had more staying power this season but you know he's he's a good player for them and he's got a little bit of that there's times I've looked at him in the playoffs and I said, you know what, if I played against that guy, I'd really hate him. And you want that. Like that's what you want in the postseason. The more guys you have like that, the better off you are. And there's certainly some of that too, McMichael. By the way, we pointed out after game one, Spencer Carberry was a

little short-winded in the postgame. Press conference was about two minutes 45 seconds. After game two, just over eight and a half minutes. So was in much more talkative mood and much more... Amazing what a W does for someone. Yesose grumpy two-word answers to every question. When gets in there, hey would you like a university dissertation on whatever question you'd ask? I'm here to provide it. Yes, that's right. You want to talk hockey, you want to talk real estate, we can talk what's going on economically, anything. And nothing's off the table at this point. Bitcoin investments, like let's talk about it. We can talk what's going on economically, anything. And nothing's off the table at this point.

Bitcoin investments, like let's talk about it. That's right. We just got a new pope on Thursday. New pope, new pope. How do you feel? See, the new pope was at the game in Vegas tonight. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Oh, good Chicago guy. Loves his sports. White Sox fan, apparently. God, you'd have to be the pope to put up with the way the white socks have played the last couple years. Oh man. Well an important one for Washington and yeah that one's got the making of a long long series as it heads to rally for game number three. Okay we are two games into Panthers maple leafs, Elliott. Toronto takes care of home ice. There's been a lot of pace, a lot of physicality.

Are the Maple Leafs in a way beating the Panthers at their own game to kick off this second round matchup? How do you mean? Well, for all the talk about how heavy Florida is, and they're a heavy team, Toronto looks just as heavy. For all the talk about how deep Florida is, and they are, Toronto's getting contributions from a number of different avenues, along with the guys that are paid to do so.

It's been pretty impressive. Like none of this has happened by accident for Toronto out of the gate. There's still a long ways to go. But being in the building for those first two games, I mean, knowing how good both teams are, I guess going in, you're kind of anticipating, yeah, you could see a split to begin the series. But Toronto's been full value with how they've taken care of their home ice to kick this one off. The biggest difference to me when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs now and past years is they're not panicking. They are not panicking. Their coach has created a calmness around them. It goes back to what you said. Game one craziness to Stoller's loony bin around the city and

What does Barubei say? Hey, we got to win a game We got to worry about winning the game and the team is taking on the personality of the head coach Like some of its maturity a lot of these guys are older now They've seen the good they've seen the bad. I think you gain an understanding through everything that happens. But they're calm. They don't lose their minds. Like one of the things about Marner who scored the winning goal in game number two, is that you would see situations where important playoff games would tighten up and he'd freeze. You could see it really

affected him when things go badly like everybody remembers that shot in the penalty box of him against Montreal all those years ago when he could feel that game in that series slipping away from them. They're different now. They don't get rattled. They understand it's all about punch-counterpunch. Like game one when Florida came storming back at them, they could have lost. They didn't. It was Florida that made the big mistake of that game, forgetting to make a proper line change giving Nies the breakaway, the 5-3 goal.

Like those are mistakes that you would think that maybe of these two teams, Toronto would be more likely to make. But no no they held and Florida made the big mistake in game two once again Florida counter punches they get they tie the game the Maple Leafs come right back and they score that's the biggest difference to me they've gone from hoping they can win to believing they can win and keeping control. Now you're right there's still two more games you got to win and you have to think we haven't seen the best of the Florida Panthers yet. There's a couple things here. Number one, it's one thing to say that you

have to shoot high to beat Bobrowski but they're doing it. They're finding room. They're getting elite shots off. They are, you know, it used to say like, how do you score against Dominik Hasek? You get traffic on them. You jam them. You make life difficult on them. Well, you know, the Sabres did a good job at their best of making it very hard for you to do that.

And even if you did do it, he might still stop it anyway. The Maple Leafs are looking at it and they're saying, we've got to shoot high on Bobrovsky. Well, no matter what Florida does, it's not stopping Toronto from doing it. And they're executing their plan. Now I've got to think that Bobrovsky is going to be better here.

I can't imagine he's going to be like this the whole series, but early on they're accomplishing it. And you know, number two, there's a couple guys here who haven't been at their best yet for Florida and they have to get there. Number one is Matthew Kachuk and you know, Brady admitted that he was never 100% healthy after the Four Nations. that he was never 100% healthy after the Four Nations. I can't help but watch Matthew here and feel the same thing, that he is still not 100% after the Four Nations. It's not an excuse.

You have to find a way, and you have to make an impact on the series in other ways. But right now, he's not making the impact on the series that you would expect. You look at Kachak's minutes, look at the Florida series, 12, 13 and a half, 16 and that's the one he was ejected from late, 16 again, 10 and a half. And in the Toronto series is a little bit higher, he's at 19 and 18 and a half, so his minutes are coming up, but he hasn't yet made the impact that he can make so that's one thing I'm

watching out for Kyle the second thing is is that Bennett he was really affected by what happened in game one he was not the same player in game two and obviously you're gonna be a marked man when you're Bennett and you have to be careful about what you do. But this was a guy who was skating away from scrums, was noticeably staying away from the goaltenders and you're hoping that he finds the happy medium. I thought historical leaf killer Marchand was great but and that line has been fantastic. Been their best. But they as from one to 20 Toronto's players have been better than Florida's players are and I'll say this about

Wul. You know he was thrown into a really difficult situation. He's a talented guy. I thought as that game got on he got a lot better and as I said about many You know, he was thrown into a really difficult situation. He's a talented guy. I thought as that game got on, he got a lot better. And as I said about many goaltenders at this time of year, I don't care about how I look at how many that's a W and that's good enough. Yeah, it's talking to somebody who knows the position well made a really good point about goaltending in the playoffs. Ellie is that you can't get hung up

on what your safe percentages, what's your goals against average, how are you doing with the high danger chances to use your point? Are you getting wins? Can you adapt because it's so different from the regular season where now a team has as many as seven games to sink their teeth into where you're vulnerable, where they can try to pick you apart. So it's about adaptability. But Joseph Wohl very much showed that as the night we're on in game two and even, you know, after a couple go by him early on when he came in and relief in game one. And now, you know, you've got the veteran, a future Hall of Famer, you would think, and Bobrovsky that has to adapt after giving up nine

in the first two games of this series. And Jason York has the great line that, you know, it's funny, you sit in enough pregame meetings as a player over the years, and it's just amazing how many goalies you hear from the coaches that don't like having traffic in front of them. It's like, that's always the pre-scout, get in his eyes, He doesn't like traffic.

Oh yeah. Take away his eyes. That sounds really harsh, really harsh. Almost a biblical style penalty. We don't need that anymore, Kyle. But it's a common theme across the league. So yeah, good drama. Good drama out of the gate here now. And the news coming out on Thursday that Anthony Stolar is not traveling with the team down here at least initially, so it remains Joseph Wall's net for Toronto in the interim. A couple other things. First of all, Matt Murray. If someone would have said at the beginning of the year that Matt Murray would be a factor for Toronto at this point of the season, nobody would have believed them.

He deserves a lot of credit. He missed being eligible in the AHL Goaltender Statistics by one or two games. He played 21, I believe, but he would have been number one in both goals against 1.72 and save percentage, whatever his number was. It was nine something, 924 something like that. So first of all, good on him for working his way back into NHL existence. What did you think of the embellishment penalty? And let's just remember that one thing I do agree with, and I said on this pod, embellishment

has been brutal in these playoffs. So I applaud the officials for calling it. I was shocked by that one. I have never seen embellishment on that play before. Yes, being hit in the numbers. Like the whole building, like you could tell even our guys in the booth reacting to it real time as they were announcing it to the house. I couldn't, I could, I could not believe it either. And Paul Marie said the great line that they had to banish Rodriguez down to the fourth line because he was given the embellishment call earlier in the game.

Like, that was not embellishment. It was not, he braced himself. It felt like he was kind of prepared for what was coming, but there was a lot of force being driven from Through his back and into the glass man, oh man, I know I was thinking does he have a reputation or Something like that because

That's the only way I could have seen that and he's never been fined for it before like that's one of the things I checked out on Thursday is this somebody who has a history for embellishment and because then that situation I might be able to understand it but it's not there that was a wild wild call like as when the officials were all huddled I'm thinking oh are they debating calling a major just to get another look at this that's what I thought was coming and he gets an embellishment call we're went completely the other way.

So yeah, I was surprised. I was surprised. I was too. All right. And I'll say this. In this series, we're waiting for the Panthers best. We have not seen it yet. We're waiting for it.

Game three, Friday night and sunrise. That'll bring us to the final thought which is brought to you by GMC. Elliott, you wondered leading up to game one of Winnipeg Dallas which of those two teams may have the emotional letdown after their game seven triumph on the weekend. It appears that team was the Jets. Scott Arneal's line after the fact that did not feel like a playoff game, game one, round two, felt like game 45 in the middle of December. That could not be applied to Mikko Rantinen. Another hat trick. He's up to 15 points in the playoffs, eight goals in all.

I don't know why Pete DeBoer has even taken him off the ice at this point. The amazing thing about him is that he's one of those guys that he can be kind of quiet or you don't notice him as much and all of a sudden he just decides he's going to assassinate you. You look at those, it's not like he carries the puck for a long time before he scores those goals.

It's just, oh, there's Rantan, give it to him, it's in the net. Or it's not like he's got seven great chances and you're stoning him or preventing him from scoring and then all of a sudden two or three of them goes in. It's quiet, quiet, quiet, and then he kills you. It's stealth mode for him until the puck's in the net. It's a really impressive run. 12 goals in a row, he gets a point on. He's the most dominant player in the playoffs right now.

You know, Peter DeBoer had a good line about it after the game about, let's just let this, let's just ride this as long as we can. I mean, he knows this isn't coaching. This is just a great player on the hot streak of all hot streaks. Yeah. Rollin' the dice at the craps table. And it's just torture for the Avalanche and their fans the longer this continues to go on. But you know I did think that and you could tell Scott Arneal thought that too that he sat there and he said we didn't have the same intensity and you know I think one of the reasons he was

so angry at the end of that game or at least displeased is because he knows it's his responsibility to get his team back into the right frame of mind. So he's frustrated because he's thinking they're like, okay, I got to do a bit more here. Hopefully the loss snaps them back to attention. But I'm going to have to make sure and also we've given up a game here, right? Like it's still early in the series, it's game one, there's a long way to go and Shifely's back so the Jets feel better about themselves for that reason. And he looked good. And he did look really good. But you're kind of sitting there and saying, you only get to lose so many and we kind of

coughed up a hairball here. So that's why he's as annoyed as he is. Again I don't overreact too much from that game. You know the Winnipeg had the matchups and they put their best players out there against Ranton and but he just reminds you again like he doesn't need the puck for a long time. He just needs a little bit of open space or a great pass in his direction and he's going to score on you. And I think that's the other thing here too is that when he got traded the first time there was all of this about oh how good is he really? Is he a Macar merchant? Is he a McKinnon merchant? No, he's his own great player and his head was so screwed up from the trade because he never saw it coming and he was so unhappy in the second spot because it wasn't where he wanted to be.

It's another reminder to that mindset matters. And no matter how good a player you are, if your head isn't in the right place, you cannot be successful. No matter what you do out there, anyone who's listening to this podcast, if your head space is not good, you cannot be successful. There's a book I was given once,

it's called Talent is Never Enough. It's true, you need the work ethic, and you need the proper mentality. And finally, Rantnan need the proper mentality and finally Rantin has the proper mentality and if you give him an inch he's gonna take a mile He went from revenge tour in round one and now it's just an all-out warpath He doesn't care who's standing in his way and the three goals were all scored a different way to your point Yeah, you never know like he's just a he's great at sleuthing. You wait for when he's going to pop up.

He's he's finds that open spot. He's like a great three point shooter in basketball. He finds the open spot on the court and he makes it. If you give him any room, he makes it. Any other thoughts when you're watching game one between these teams? Not really. Like I said, it's early. I try not to overreact to game one. We overreacted to game one

Toronto, Florida enough that we don't need to overreact to Winnipeg, Dallas game one. All right, we'll leave it there. That was the final thought brought to you by GMC. We will take our first break and come back with the thought line. It's back today. 32 thoughts. The podcast continues after this. Okay, time once again for the Thoughtline, Elliot. You know, after Adam Copeland was kind enough to help us out with the pregame festivities the other night in Toronto, I had a couple people reach out to me asking, does that mean Elliot has been replaced?

No, you're not going anywhere. You're still here. You sound really excited about that, Kyla. Try to contain your enthusiasm. How did you set that up? Let us know. Well, I've been fortunate to get to know him a little bit over the years.

As you know, he's been on the pod here before a number of years ago. You had him on, right? Yes, yes, he was right? Yes. Yeah, great guest. Love for hockey, runs deep. He used to go to games at Maple Leaf Gardens when he was growing up just outside Toronto. So got to know him a little bit through then when they were the year they beat Tampa in the first round a couple years ago Toronto did. He was down at a couple of games we had him on before one of those games and have just

kind of kept in touch here and there over the years. And I had heard that he was coming to game two and thought we need a little Adam Copeland in our lives again. We sure do. He also created the belt that goes to the Maple Leafs player of the game. Exactly. That's right. That's right One of the great things about he always designed his own tights hey over his whole wrestling career He liked to design his own I just signed my own pants, too. I want everyone to know that the one

Yeah Think that's impressive. It shows so do. Yes, that's good. All right, let's get to today's submissions. We begin with Nick from St. Louis. Hi guys, in the opening 30 seconds of the second period of the Blues Jets game six, a Morgan Baron goal got called back for offside. After the entry, Justin Falk was called for a hooking penalty before Barron scored. After the goal was deemed offside, the Falk penalty remained and the Jets scored on the ensuing power play. If the play was deemed offside before he scored and the clock was reset to 1934, how does the penalty against Falk that occurred after the offside Jets zone entry remain a minor penalty against the Blues.

It seems like if the play is reset back to that moment in time when the play should have been blown dead, the Blues shouldn't be stuck with any infractions that happened after that. Curious your thoughts here and whether you think the Blues should have been stuck with the minor penalty. They should have been. I don't know the specific number of the rule. Maybe Kyle does here in a second, but there is something in the rule book that says that if you commit a penalty, you are not freed by time travel. This isn't the movie Tenet, which I'm still trying to figure out. I've watched that movie like 36 times. I have no idea what happens.

This isn't the movie that if you commit a penalty or a foul and the play is wiped out by a review, it doesn't matter. The penalty still stands. So it looked weird. It may have looked wrong, but it was right. That is the correct way that these things are supposed to work out. And if you understand what was happening with the movie Tenet, please explain it on the thought line sometime before the end of the season. Yes. So hate to be the bearer of bad news, Nick, but yes, the right call was made in that instance.

Okay, a voicemail up next Alfred Alfred Alfred from Vancouver. And Kyle as we've now learned through Chris Tanev Vancouver the in-your-face part of the country. Very good. Hello just Kyle Dommel it's Alfred from Vancouver I love listening to the pod it's a place where I get to learn more in-depth of the game we call home. Now every year I look forward to the NHL draft lottery, but the ten spot rule makes my nipples not so erect. The whole process has proven over the years that it works without this rule anyway. So my question simply is, what was the league's purpose behind this rule? Cheers, and thanks for helping me with my loser thinking

Go Kanax go Alfred you've got a lot of good ones in here the nipples not erect the loser thinking You know all my catchphrases. Very good Alfred. The reason here is very simple. There had been too many cases where they felt that teams that really shouldn't have won the lottery won it and they wanted to try to put limits on it. I asked a friend of mine who's a bit more mathematically inclined than I am and he said when you look at the historical results of the draft lottery, they're more random than you would expect them to be. There have been some real long shot combinations. And I think the teams that were honestly bad have really been

frustrated by that. Like no team I understand has complained more than the Detroit Red Wings and if you're a Red Wings fan and you listen to this podcast it probably is true that they have been worst affected by lottery randomness than any other team it legitimately drives them crazy how bad their lottery luck has been. So what they did was they brought in these rules a couple years ago, couldn't rise more than 10 spots, could only win the lottery twice in any five-year span. And it was kind of to hopefully reward teams that deserved it more. You know, one thing we should should explain because people do ask this

if you're the worst team in the league like Chicago was and you get the number one overall pick people say does that count as a lottery win? No it doesn't. If you end up in chalk as they call it which is where you're supposed to be it doesn't count as a lottery win. But for the islanders and for the mammoth, I have to get used to calling them the mammoth. This does count as a lottery win. Yeah, and they brought that in in 2021, by the way, the 10 spot jump limit for the NHL draft. So Alfred, if you don't like this this blame the Red Wings and their fans because they were I understand the most upset about it. Oh good to know. Alright Paul up

next an Oilers fan living in Leafsland. Okay oh boy you ready for this one? Well if you're saying it like that the answer is no, but let's go for it anyway. Well, hey, I don't want to, I said, I don't want to discriminate when people come up with the Franken names for us. But this, this is one. Hello, freedom, kakoskman. Oh my God, that is terrible. I on one level, I respect it, but that's terrible.

Just I'm just reading what's in front of me here. Elliot, that's all I'm doing. Just reading what's in front of me. Longtime listener, first time writer stats question. Leon Drysidle went 19 consecutive games with at least one point against the LA Kings in the playoffs. It ended on the 20th game, but they advanced to the second round. So I'm not complaining. Can you dig up who had the longest consecutive point streak against a single team in playoff history? Thanks Kyle and Dom, go Oilers. No thank yous for Elliott who hates the Oilers because he said the winner of

Dallas Colorado will play in the Stanley Cup final, completely discounting my Oilers. Did you say that? I don't know. Honestly, we do so many podcasts, so many interviews, and I'm on the air so much, I don't remember half the stuff I said. I guess I could have, who knows. Oh, I'm glad Paul's listening. I think I said it was like a Stanley Cup final,

but who knows. Yes, that you did say. I could have said that, who knows. All knows all right so Paul you'll be happy to know that Leon Dreissel that's actually ties the record a 19 game point streak against one team in the playoffs nobody's done more games consecutively in the postseason but there are two others that also have 19 gamers. You have any guesses? Yes, so the first thing I would guess is one of the 80s Oilers against a team like Winnipeg or Calgary.

You're all over it. All over it. Is it both players or just one of them? It is both. So it's gotta be Gretzky and I'll go with Curry. Gretzky is one, not Curry. So the other one is is Anderson or Messier? It's Marc Messier. Wow. And is it against Calgary or Winnipeg? So I was thinking Winnipeg Gretzky had 19 games 40 points versus Calgary Mm-hmm Messier

28 points in 19 games also against LA like Leon. LA. Oh wow, okay The only other thing I was thinking was someone like Maurice Richard in the 50s against Toronto or something like that. Original Six, I would guarantee that the Richards or the Gordy Howes would have a long streak against the same team. But I thought that was a pretty easy guess that the 80s oilers would be at or near the top of the list I wouldn't have guessed la though because a lot of those games probably came against gratsky actually Right. Well in 90 and 89

Yep and then That's that's 11 games miracle on manchester years previous. Oh, yeah that year right on Manchester years previous. Oh yeah, you're right. So it all would have added up. But yeah, three Oilers atop the list of that category. Good question. Very good question.

Good question. Okay, one final one. One final submission. Carl from Castleman, Ontario. You ever driven and stopped in Castleman over your years, Elliot, going back and forth between Ottawa and Montreal? Where's that?

That's about 45 minutes east of Ottawa. Not that I can remember. Have you been there? Oh, plenty of times. It's just, well, I haven't spent a lot of time there for extended periods, but it's a great stop and gas up, get a snack, maybe a little lunch on the drive. Castleman's a staple for that. Carl writes in, Hi Kyle, Elliot and Dom, with the recent retirement of David Savard, I read

that it will be the first time since 1966 that no player with the last name Savard will be active in the NHL unless We have a new Savard join the league next season would this be the longest continuous surname streak in NHL history? Love the pod keep up the great work That is true Since 1966 Elliott through to the end of this season Since 1966, Elliot, through to the end of this season, there has been at least one Savard on an NHL roster, and that appears to be about to come to an end. Sir Savard, Denny Savard, wow. André Savard, Jean Savard, André Savard. Mark? Mark Savard. Jean Savard. Andre Savard.

Mark. Mark Savard, of course. The saboteur. You gotta have that one. Yeah, he's the only Savard with his own meter. And David Savard, wow. So I have to assume that the most popular names, like Smith.

Oh my God, you got it! Well, that's not hard. Like you can't get a lot of credit for that one. Yeah, but there's a lot of obvious names. No, Smith would be number one. It would be, I would pick that ahead of Jones, ahead of anyone, Anderson. Smith to me is the most,

there has to be an unbreakable chain of Smiths. 59, 60 through to this year, Smith. I'm actually surprised it's not longer. That's the one. But Savard had a good run, Elliot. That's a great run. Yeah. I thought that was kind of fun. I'd never thought about it that way. So Carl, thank you for submitting that. The Thoughtline, 1-833-311-3232 or the email, 32thoughts at Sportsnet.ca. We'll take our final break and get to some news

across the NHL. 32 Thoughts, the podcast continues after this. Welcome back. Couple things to touch on around the NHL. Elliot, it became official on Thursday that the Anaheim Ducks have hired Joel Quenville to be the 12th head coach in franchise history. This is Quenville's first opportunity since stepping away from the Florida Panthers back in the fall of 2021. Your reaction to this news. OK, Kyle, this is how we're going to break this down.

There's the hockey point of view, and there's the more important part of this conversation. Let's do the hockey first. Cuenville was from the beginning the number one contender for the Ducks coaching job. They interviewed David Karl, they interviewed Jay Woodcroft, they had interest in Mike Sullivan, that wasn't happening. Of course he was going to the Rangers. They've had interest in Rick Tauke, but I don't think that ever really went far off the ground. And as they did their research into Quenville's past and what happened in Chicago, it became pretty

clear that if the Docs were comfortable with what they found and what they uncovered, Quenville was going to be their guy. If you saw the owner Henry Samwelly's quotes from the media conference on Thursday, it's very clear that the days of the Ducks rebuilding and losing, they want them to be over. Just as Pat Verbeek said, Samwelly wants it to be over too. Verbeek, by the way, he's heading towards the end of his contract. So he knows the pressure's on him too to show some results in Anaheim. I believe the two of them met in Florida a couple weeks ago. That's where the rumor started that Cuenville was on the radar.

Cuenville lives in Florida. and then eventually he traveled to California I think last week or last weekend to meet with some people face to face in the Ducks organization and make sure that everybody was comfortable and in a good place with what they were hearing. Contract wise it's either a 2, a 2 plus an option or 3. I'm not sure as of Thursday night. 3 I believe is the max, but I also heard they were discussing the possibility of 2 and 2 and an option. But Sam Welley did talk about stepping up. The Ducks have not historically paid a ton to their coaches. They did do that here on some level for Quenville.

Now the more important stuff. I understand the Ducks spoke to Kyle Beach. I heard Verbeek did twice. I heard Aaron Teets, president did twice and Cuenville did as well including the day of the media conference I don't pretend to speak for Kyle Beach only he should do that for himself But I find it very hard to believe that if Beach Objected or had an issue with this hiring that the Ducks would have been going through with it. You should also remember that just before Quenville, Stan Bowman and

Al McKizer were reinstated last year that Beach spoke to the league about it. So I also, while again, I don't pretend to speak for Beach. I think if Beach had an issue back then, the NHL would not have taken the path. It did. I want to mention a couple of the things here. First I want to recognize Chris Jensen, a former hockey player in Chicago, who is a survivor. He was at the media conference on Thursday. Him and Cuenville have struck up a friendship in the aftermath of this, and Jensen was there. I just wanted to recognize Chris Jensen. He's a very courageous person.

The other thing I wanted to mention about the entire Chicago Blackhawks situation from 2010 is that, you know, people forget there was a second victim after Brad Aldrich left the Blackhawks, a younger person. Wherever they are, I just hope they're in a good place. That's something I think about whenever I think about this case. I hope that person is in a good place. The individual who was highest on the Blackhawks management chain of command at the time has never answered questions about the team's decisions or his decisions or explain them. He's never faced any public questioning. He's never faced any public kind of penalty or scrutiny for what happened. At the very least,

I think we would all like to hear the answers of what occurred back then and why the organization acted as it did. Stan Bowman and Joel Quenville were punished. No one's arguing it should have been any different. Their reputations were damaged, but if this person who's more responsible than them for the decisions has escaped penalty, there is a point where Bowman and Quenville deserved an opportunity to prove they had learned their lessons. This is Quenville's one chance. He has to be squeaky clean here and he knows it.

This is his opportunity to prove he has learned from how he could have handled that situation a lot better. Okay, so it was last summer when Quenville and Stan Bowman were reinstated, permitted to work in the National Hockey League again. As Anaheim went through their process in deciding what they were gonna do here, how involved do you think the league was in all of this? I think they would be involved in the sense that, first of all they've been reinstated so Anaheim was free to hire them if they chose. Yeah. But first I think they would let the

league know that they're thinking about it. I think they would ask the league if there was anything that they would need to know or there's anything publicly that they're not aware of. I would assume they would need to know or there's anything publicly that they're not aware of I would assume they would have asked the league about their conversations with with Beach and how to reach out to him, too But you know, I think because they've been reinstated The league isn't really in a position where they could say no unless something new came up that made them say you you know what, we're not, we wouldn't advise you, we wouldn't allow you to do this. So that's the way I think it would work. Okay, as Pam Verbika said, they are in a situation now where they want to make the playoffs next year. Guenville, second

all-time in wins. I was thinking like going back to that article in GQ a few months back, Elliot, that Jonathan Taves hadn't written off the idea of potentially looking at coming back to hockey. Do you see any link there between his old head coach? That's a good question. If he so chooses. Helping a young team get into the next step. It's not the worst idea you've ever come up with. I will say that. And I guarantee that somebody's going to listen to this and ask the question.

One thing I can tell you, Kyle, is that there's a lot of players in the league who like playing for Cuenville. And Taze was obviously one of them. So without having made a call or without having any knowledge, which is kind of the way I do most of my job, I would say that's a good connection, really good connection. All right, so Anaheim has their guy behind the bench. That's going to be watched closely as time goes on. Just down the freeway Los Angeles needs a new general manager, what's been the scuttlebutt, his names start to percolate and who could be the man there?

So we're still waiting to see what the internal chances are and you know Luke Robitaille, we talked on the last pod about after listening to Luke Robitaille talk, we weren't sure that it was going to be an internal promotion. But one of the names that's starting to circulate a little bit right now for the Kings is Ken Holland. For the Kings is Ken Holland You know, he was in the mix for the Islanders and I am reserving judgment on where I think the Islanders could be going here But I've heard Holland's name With the Kings and if they go external He may have a shot here. So this is a developing situation,

still trying to figure out where the Kings are going here, but I have heard Holland's name with them. Little ways north of Anaheim on the BC west coast in Vancouver, We would be remiss if we did not check in and what's going on there and their search for a new bench boss. Elliot? So Irv Gaffar, friend of the pod, had a good name on Thursday and that is Marco Sturm. Sturm is the former NHL'er who coaches the LA Kings AHL team in the non-province of Ontario and Marco Sturm here's the reason I think that's an interesting name number one he wants to make the jump he's very interested in making the jump from the AHL to the NHL secondly he fits the profile of a guy who would be

very happy to be the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Like a guy who may not be on the top of any list, but a guy who's ambitious, a guy who understands players, a guy who has respect. Like people respect St respect stir he's got a good reputation and he's somebody who would want this job like I think that that's the kind of person I would look at and say he intrigues them because he's not somebody you're gonna have to convince to come there. He's somebody who's going to say, I want this job. This is a job that I would be happy to have.

So I would not be surprised at all when the Canucks get down to their second interviews, if he's on it and he works his way into a serious conversation. When Irv reported that name, I was like, that's a good one. Whether he gets the job or not, his name makes sense. The other thing I would add, Kyle, is that in Sturm's case, I don't think Vancouver would be the only team

looking at him. Don't forget, he's got a history with the Bruins. The Bruins have an opening and I'll be honest, I don't have a great feel for what they're doing here yet. But he was traded to Boston in the Joe Thornton deal he played with them for five seasons and There are still people in and around the organization that know him well So it wouldn't surprise me if he's on the Bruins radar, too

and he's on the Bruins radar too. And we talked about how the Rangers kind of went through a scenario of the reputation kind of taking a hit and trying to rebuild that. Vancouver has certainly gone through it in their own way with how A the season's gone, Rick Tocca deciding you know what I think it's just time for something different after all the success they had just a year ago. So having someone in that position that would be enthused, invigorated about an opportunity like that, that's not a bad place to start. Do you have a sense of like how wide the nets being cast here as Vancouver's trying to figure out

where they want to go in finding their next coach? I think it's pretty wide. You know, I think they've made quite a bit of contact. And I think one of the reasons that a lot of names have kind of gotten out or been considered is because Vancouver's tried to cast a pretty wide net to make sure they're not missing anyone. Like as you know, Jim Rutherford is in position that he didn't necessarily think he was going have to do a coaching search right so when you're playing a little bit from behind you you make a lot of calls and I think that's why a few different names have gotten out there and I and also I think that's why at different times who might be a serious contender has been kind of listed like there was a time obviously I thought Adam Foote was gonna

be a serious contender and now Sturm's names come out and I'm like, you know what? That kind of makes sense, too. So I think it's just an example of the kind of things that Canucks are doing. They're playing a little bit of catch up and they're making sure they don't miss anybody. All right, Elliott's, I. Metaphorically. Poured one out for you on Wednesday when the news come down that Utah,

they are officially the mammoth, not HC going forward. But what did you think of the reveal? What do you think of the logo, the look, everything? Tusks up in Salt Lake. Well, to me, they'll always be the Utahns. I have to get used to calling them the mammoth, but they'll always be the Utahns. You know what? I think if you have the research that says your fan base is going to like this, then

you have to go with your fan base. But you have to be creative with it. And I thought they were pretty creative. I liked the reveal. I thought it was well done. Like I'm a big like I play a lot of online or app escape rooms. So I like you do eggs. Oh, yeah, I love it. I could play escape rooms for hours, hours at a time. I like Easter eggs. I like cheat codes. I like different stuff like

that. Do you play Among Us? No, I don't. Okay. No. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, it's okay. But so when the one girl is holding the Stanley Cup and maybe you don't notice that right away, I love that kind of stuff. I think that stuff is fantastic. I like the State of Utah sort of hidden in the logo.

It's like the Kraken eye. That stuff really appeals to me, right? So if the Utahns or the Mammoth and their fans are happy, I'm good with that. It wasn't my first choice, but I understand it's not for me. I remember when the Raptors first came came the late Jim Hunt was on the radio and Jim was like 80 at the time and John bit over on the Raptors said Do you like the name Raptors and he's like no and he goes good because you're 80 and I don't care what you think

So, you know if if theammoth wasn't my first choice, like HC, I mean who cares what I think, right? They have to care more about what their actual fans think and they seem to be really happy with it. Boy oh boy. And they kind of went Major League Baseball style where they've got their primary logo front and center on the home jersey and then Utah still the diagonal text for the road sweater like in baseball right certainly back in the day the road jersey always had the city name of where you were from and then the home jersey had the team name sport yeah I'm good with that I like that I don't have a problem with that at all. Yeah.

Wow. All right. Utah mammoth tusks up. Take a little bit to get used to but we'll get there. Well, I don't know I'll be saying tusks up too often. I'm not one of those guys that walks around like hook them horns and stuff like that. I don't I don't know how to be doing tusks up. You just share that you're on escape rooms all the time here. I just I can't assume what I'll be doing, toss up. You just share that you're on Escape Rooms all the time here. I just, I can't assume anything with you. Oh, I like those.

Surprises, it's awesome. Those are great. Escape this podcast. Yes, well we should say quickly, congratulations Cruz Armstrong, 14th overall of the WHL US Priority Draft to the Oh wow, nice. Seattle Thunderbirds, son of Colby, our colleague. Congratulations to the Armstrong family.

But the best news is clearly that young man gets all his brains and talent from Melissa. Yes. Very good. Awesome. All right. Two more games on tap here tonight to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Game three, Leafs Panthers from Sunrise on the air at 630 Eastern, 330 Pacific, and then just after 7 o'clock on Sportsnet and CBC. The late game, another late one for Jets fans in the Central Time zone, but at least it's a Friday night. A little after 930 Eastern, 830 Central Time. Jets and Stars, game two from the peg. Enjoy the games Friday night, the hockey this weekend,

and we will talk to you again on Monday. ["The Game Show Theme"]