32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Who's Taking Tolvanen?

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

A weekend filled with news, a delayed flight and a teddy bear toss! Jeff and Elliotte (in Florida) recap their busy weekend (00:10), discuss why the Predators placed Eeli Tolvanen on waivers (4:40), the latest on Jesse Puljujärvi (9:30), Milan Lucic was a health scratch (13:30), Darryl Sutter has some thoughts about the refereeing in Toronto (16:50), Vancouver (21:00), Seattle look like they’re for real (25:30), what’s on the agenda at the Board of Governors meetings in Florida (30:00) and Kevin Bieksa has his say on Chara’s comments about the 2011 Stanley Cup Final (32:10).The guys also preview their upcoming interview with LA Kings head coach Todd McLellan (36:00).GET YOUR 32 THOUGHTS MERCH HEREEmail the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailAudio Credits: Columbus Blue Jackets Radio Network, KJR AM and Sportsnet and WQAM-AM.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.

Hey guys, Dan here from Perry Sound, home of Bobby Orr. Just listening to Friday's pod and you guys, especially Jeff, going on about banging on the glass. I'm a glass banger, always have been, always will be. And it's one of the best and most fun parts of the game and the reason to get those glass side seats of the game. Have fun, guys. Bye. That's fantastic. Good for you.

What a way to open it up. Okay. Don't give in to the oppressor. Screw off. Class bangers are the worst. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by GMC and the new Sierra AT4X. No, wrong. There's a few things. And you said that you were surprised that I wasn't in favor of glass banging. There's a few

things that I really don't like about hockey. Let me list them off because there's two specifically. And it's going to take me to where I want to get to here to kick off the show today, Elliot. I have no time for glass bangers or glass banging in general. To me, that's amateur hour. The other thing that I really hate about hockey is the hockey song by Stomping Tom Connors. In my hell, that is playing on a loop. Hello out there. We're on the air. It's hockey night tonight. I can't stand it. I love Tom Connors.

Really? Love a lot of his stuff. Yeah, used to play hockey with his son. Great guy. Can't stand that song. That is the bane of my existence. And now that I've put it out there, I know everyone's going to send me versions or clips of Stompin' Tom Connors and the hockey song.

clips of Stompin' Tom Connors and the hockey song. Sacrilege. No, no, no. It's awful, man. It's terrible. Listen, hockey fans, it's okay to think that that song sucks. It's okay. It's alright. You have a support group here in me. So you're in Florida for the Board of Governors.

You went to see the Panthers and the Kraken. I want to get there quickly. I went to one of my favorites, speaking of things about hockey, Hockey Traditions tonight at the Tribute Community Center in Oshawa, the annual Teddy Bear Toss game. I love the Teddy Bear Toss. I love everything about it. It's a great thing.

There's not one thing about the Teddy Bear Toss game that I don't love. It was the Oshawa Generals facing off against the Berry Colts, and one of our family friends plays on the Oshawa Generals, so it was good to see him afterwards. Shout out Ryder McIntyre, number 72 for your Oshawa Generals.

Got cut up with Marty Williamson, haven't seen him in a while, head coach and GM of the Berry Colts and Elliot, today I was reminded that I am old. You know how it happened? How? So before the game I was on my way to meet

Marty to catch up and I had my kids with me and some of their friends from hockey teams and gonna go, you know, the Berry Colts gonna walk them through the room and meet Marty and everybody and that was all cool. And Ethan Cardwell, who is a San Jose Sharks draft pick, greeted the kids and was walking them through the room. And he's wearing a Minnesota Fighting Saints t-shirt. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is amazing. Like, here's this kid playing in the OHL with a Minnesota Fighting Saints shirt.

And I'm like, dude, that's a great shirt. And he says, yes, my grandfather played on the team. And I had never put two and two together. Steve Cardwell is his grandfather. And I went, A, that's really cool. And B, oh, I think I just broke my hip just listening to that story. So he was on that Fighting Saints team that was coached by Harry Neal. John Garrett was the goaltender.

And Elliot, that made me feel old when this young, outstanding hockey player, Nathan Cardwell, said, yes, my grandfather played on the team. Oh, wow. Well, I'd just like to remind everybody, Jeff is older than I am. Slightly. Please, slightly. So that was my...

Leighton Moore, the Teddy Bear Toss goal, good on him. He was feeling awful for pretty much the entire day, as I understand it. I think he went and barfed after he scored the goal, too. He was pretty sick. But congratulations. The Janies win the shootout. Congrats, Slayton Moore, the captain of the Oshawa Generals

with the Teddy Bear toss goal. And again, if you haven't been to one of these things, do yourself the favor. It is one of the best hockey experiences you will encounter. Now, L.A. Tolvan and our waivers. Nashville Predators, your thoughts. Yeah, so we, it was a bit delayed. It happens.

We landed in Florida at 3 o'clock, and I missed the waiver news today, and there was a big one, as you said, Tolvin on waivers. And I was surprised. I did a little bit of work into it, and basically what this comes down to is, it's a numbers game.

All of a sudden, Nashville is really shorthanded. They've got injuries on the blue line, and they need to call up defense. And they called up one on Sunday. I shouldn't say that. I think they're calling up one for Monday's game. I'm not sure how it's all going to work. And then depending whether or not Tolvanen gets claimed or they can send him down, they're going to call up another one.

They suffered two injuries on the weekend, and they're really shy on the blue line. Plus also, and we want to send our best to Michael McCarron, who was announced by the Players Association that he's going for help in the substance abuse program. And, you know, the thing I'm most hopeful for for McCarron is that the last national player to enter the program was Connor Ingram, who's now in Arizona. And I spoke to Ingram about his jersey. He said the Predators were unbelievable about it, like really, really good, particularly David Boyle, the GM's son, Brian.

really, really good, particularly David Boyle, the GM's son, Brian. So I hope that McCarron is in really good hands, both in terms of the organization and the fact that he's now in the program. Nashville is really shorthanded, especially on the blue line. They have to make some moves. And Tolvan hasn't played since November 19th. So they simply are in a position where they had to make a decision for the best of the organization and the salary cap. And the other thing I heard was there are some players that they could potentially waive, but there are players who they think of earning their spot. And that's always a tricky thing.

It's always a really tricky thing when you waive players who simply because they are waiver eligible because not every dressing room reacts well to that yeah so unfortunately Tolvanen was in this position because he hasn't played there's definitely interest the guy we're doing this on Sunday night Jeff I made some calls there's definitely some teams looking at this I've been wrong before because guys I thought for sure were to to get claimed on waivers and didn't. I would be surprised if he clears. But we'll see what happens on Monday at 2 p.m. Eastern. He got caught in a numbers game.

It was interesting. There's one team that told me, Jeff, that they are not going to claim him. And I said, why? And they said he's a good shooter. Like his career shooting percentage I think is just over 10 percent but they felt he was a little bit one-dimensional but this team said to me we can afford that with what we do he felt there's going to be a team out there that needs goals that will spot on him yeah he's um you're you're right like the one thing that stands

out about Tolfin and that we all know, I remember going back to his draft year, which would have been 2017. That shot stood out then, and that shot stands out now. And if you can help massage the rest of his game, man, you got a real good one there. Speaking of the 2017 draft, just as a quick aside, what I have found out relatively recently, Elliot,

you know who the angriest, angriest team was at that draft? And I would even submit they are even angrier now. Who's that? Florida Panthers. You know why? Hit me? They had Jason Robertson 40th for their 40th overall

pick. He went 39 to the Dallas Stars and apparently there was some salty language flying around the Florida Panthers table when Dallas went up because they were like crossing their fingers. Timmons to Colorado, Lynn to Vancouver, Haig to Vegas and all the way down.

Your Boquist and Marcus Davidson's. And they thought, oh, man, we really have a shot at it. Dallas goes up and says Jason Robertson and then just crushes the Florida Panthers table. Anyway, just as a quick aside there. Yeah, that stinks. The conversation I had, Jeff, that really stood out was with another general manager, which is not the Predators, and it was if you can send someone else down versus you put a player like Tolvan on waivers,

and what message are you sending to your room if you send someone down who's playing at the expense of someone who's not playing? Sometimes in business you have to do that, but it's not something a lot of teams like to do. So we'll see where this goes, but I've been wrong before, but a lot of people seem to think he's going to get claimed. Okay, from Tolvanen to Pouliarvi. You talked about this, Elliot, on Saturday in our allotted time for the second intermission. We have a little more time here.

It was a tough week for Jesse Pouliarvi. Tough to read all those comments. I mean, we've all seen athletes get down on themselves, and some athletes are their own worst critics. Clearly, Pouliarvi is one of those. For those that didn't see Saturday, can you sort of run down what

the Oilers might be looking at here with Pouliarvi? There's definitely a feeling here that the Oilers and Pooley-Arvey's representatives, his agents and gentlemen, that they talked about if it didn't work out this year, Pooley-Arvey would get moved. There was never anything in writing about these things, but it was clearly some sort of gentleman's. And I just think that we're at that point now here's the issue I think there's two number one is Edmonton is shorthanded now guys are starting to come back Fogle yeah

close cloud a couple weeks away but Edmonton doesn't really have a salary cap problem until Evander Kane is healthy, unless they make another move. So right now, there's the issue where Edmonton is looking at it and saying, you know what? We need bodies. And we're not doing this right now while we need bodies. I also think, Jeff, the market is really low for Pugliardi right now. He's a $3 million player who's got one goal. And I just think there's not a lot of teams that can fit the salary. And

part of the problem is there's always the debate about you don't want to trade a guy for nothing. I think the problem is right now the production is where it is. It makes it hard to trade him for something. So Edmonton, as I mentioned on Saturday night, I had some teams that tell me that they noticed a real difference.

He seems to be a little bit more of a confident player when he's not playing with one of the big two. He tries to have the puck a little bit more. He's not always trying to force it to someone else. And I think Edmonton's going to try to build him up a little bit that way. But I do think, Jeff, this will be his final season in Edmonton. Whether they trade him or they put him on waivers or he stays the whole year

and then they don't give him a qualifying offer next year and maybe someone signs him for a bit less next season one of those things is going to happen i just think right now the combination of the market is soft and they need players they just feel they aren't going to do this right now and again i'm not here to make light of what he's going through it's obvious he's going through a crisis of confidence, which is no small thing, but I just think the Oilers look at it like we need the player right now. And we'll see how this develops somewhere down the future. To try to defend Pugliarvi here,

at least a little bit defensively, he's still a really good player. That's still solid. I know his shooting percentage, he's getting crushed on his line mates, shooting percentage, he's getting crushed really good player. That's still solid. I know his shooting percentage, he's getting crushed on his line mates, shooting percentage. He's getting crushed on as well. To me,

it kind of feels like I'm, I'm in complete agreement with you on this one. And it also feels to me like, you know, whoever they, if they can move him to at trade deadline, that's going to essentially be a test drive for a contract at a reduced rate next season. Yeah. That's kind of what this feels like. One thing I think we need to throw into the equation

here as well, you mentioned with the returning bodies and there's not really a cap crunch until Evander Kane comes back. Matthias Janmark and Klimostin have played really well. Yes. Like, since they've been up, like, they've been good. So that's another, you know, the knot around this story gets a little bit tighter. Milan Lucic, healthy scratch for the first time since he was a Boston Bruin. Elliot, we saw it on Saturday as the Flames faced off against the Maple Leafs on hockey night. Yeah, it was trending in that direction. If you go back and look at his ice time last week he had low ice time against Minnesota he had low ice time against Columbus

and then in Toronto he didn't even take the pregame skate as Matthew Phillips made his season debut there's a couple things again at play here I think the Flames are doing this, not so much to loot each other on purpose, but I think they want to see what they have in some of their kids. Ruzicka has given them a jolt this year. He's been pretty good for them at times. I think they want to see what Zahorna can

do, and I think they want to see what Phillips can do, whether Daryl Sutter's happy with it or not. But the one thing I had heard was that they had kind of made a commitment that Zahorna, they were okay playing him in a bottom six or fourth line role, but if they were going to try Phillips, they wanted to try him in a position where he might be able to score. And they did that.

There was a rumor going around. When I saw his interviews in Columbus on the Friday, I thought for sure he was playing on the Friday night, but he didn't. And one of the reasons was they were looking for a fourth-line ad, and they did Zahorna there. Apparently they were like, it makes no sense for us at all to put Phillips in the lineup if he's going to play on the fourth line.

You know, the thing about Luchich is, Milan Luchich is a proud guy. You know, Eric Carlson, when he did the interview with us last Saturday, what was the last thing he said? My career is not over. That's what I've heard Luchich is telling people. Like, my career is not over.

And he's a proud guy, and I'm curious to see if he's going to be in the lineup. They've got two huge games this week on Sportsnet. They're playing Monday night hockey against the Canadiens, and they're playing, I think, Wednesday night hockey against the Canucks. I guarantee you both those teams are sitting there saying, please don't put him back in against us because he's going to be killing people. He's going to be angry.

Now, the other thing, too, and I'm going to give Joey Kenward some credit for this, who works with us out in Vancouver. Joey pointed out that if you look at that last game where he was scratched, which you were mentioned, it was the end of the regular season, and I think six Bruins regulars were held out of that game. If you really want to go back to the last game, he was a healthy scratch because he wasn't playing well. I think you have to go back to the last game he was a healthy scratch because he wasn't playing well i think you have to go back to 2013 so he's going to be wired for his next game but the thing is now

like with lucic look i'm not telling state secrets here i'm not getting arrested for treason by saying he's not the fastest guy in the world an increasingly game. So he has to be doing what he does, which is running over people and creating space and intimidating to be effective. And I think the Flames are sending a message saying, you are not that guy right now. And that's why you're out of the lineup. That scratch, the last

one, the 2014 one, that was April 13th, that last game of the season against the New Jersey Devils. I think that was like six guys got sat out in that game or something like that. So sticking with Calgary, what did you make of Daryl Sutter's not-so-subtle shot at officiating in Toronto? Well, that's one thing I learned a long time ago, Eric. When you're in Chicago all those years, when you come into Toronto,

you know what goes on. I won't say nothing more. But this is two games in a row you guys had a lot of penalties. So then write about it. Do you think they were all penalties tonight? I don't. If it's just about penalties and who's dressing and who's not, that's not what the team's about.

We scored a big power play ball, Make it 4-3 in the third. I didn't agree with it. And, you know, first of all, they had a nightmare of a weekend. They lost to Columbus two days after Columbus had that awful Paige Thompson game. They lost that game 9-4, and they were embarrassed. And Calgary came in there, and they were walking into a trap. And it was a tough night for the flames in columbus ohio playing against a beat-up blue jackets team they didn't score

their first goal until the 57 minute and 26 second mark as the blue jackets skate to a gutsy three to one win they were walking into a trap like they were getting a wounded animal and they had to be ready to play and they weren't ready to play and then toronto they at least got a point but they lost i kind of wondered if sutter was throwing some classic misdirection like talk about this yeah like poor eric francis is basically telling eric what's right eric talk about this so that we don't have to talk about how poor our weekend was. The thing is that they got a review from the league in their favor, which I think was the right call, 100%.

But secondly, if you go and look at that four-minute double-miner to Matthews at the end of regulation, the officials kind of evened it up. They gave Bunting two minutes and a huge point in the game monitor Matthews at the end of regulation, the officials kind of evened it up. They gave Bunting two minutes at a huge point in the game in the third period, and that really benefited Calgary. Now, I'll tell you what someone said to me today. When Calgary went through that Dennis Weidman, Donnie Henderson situation a couple of years ago.

Salo Mackey, and then he is banged up. He's going to try and make his way to the bench. And there's the collision with Don Henderson. He doesn't even see the linesman. So Wyman was clearly woozy after that. He went into the corner. The Flames felt that they were targets after that. That they kept on getting calls against them.

I think you and I talked about this. We used to refer to that as Weidman tax. It was a real thing. Like they complained to the league about it and the league did act. Like they said, okay, like let's settle this down. That was a thing. You know, someone said to me today,

you know, you wonder, is that going to be a thing for the Flames again? I think it was Sutter misdirection. You know, we're not playing well. We got one point out of four on the weekend. He's trying to get the conversation going in a different direction. Let's see. And when you're trying to redirect a conversation, it's always good to use Toronto as a target. That is the ultimate go-to because it always works, Elliot. It always works. Everybody loses their mind about it because it's Toronto.

When Ron Wilson was coaching the Washington Capitals, they had a game where Sergei Gonchar was injured in Toronto on an illegal play. I can't remember who did it. Somebody will tweet at me who did it. And Kevin Maguire was refereeing that game. And Ron Wilson said, didn't Kevin Maguire used to play for the Leafs? Because they weren't happy with the non-call on the play. And Ron Wilson, he's no dummy. He knew exactly what he was doing. Listen to 32 Thoughts, the podcast, ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Vancouver Canucks.

To me, the 3-0 final was, and I think to a lot of people as well was kinder than the game was to the Vancouver Canucks listen I know everyone's piling on JT Miller for the turnover the shorthanded goal at Connor Dewar goal the the two nothing goal and Hoaglander gets you know know, benched in the third. Frustrating game for the Vancouver Canucks, clearly. Bruce Boudreau gets in on the action, saying something to the effect of, you know. It's individual plays, guys. Make plays, you know, like tonight.

I would think that's not a system play when you make a pass right on the other guy's tape for a breakaway. Oh, my God. What a post game from Boudreau. Oh, that was an all-timer. I didn't think we'd score, so I wouldn't empty the net. We're still going to go out and hopefully try right to the end. Win or lose. I mean, tonight was the night I should have

maybe pulled the goalie, but I just didn't think we were going to score. I thought they were batting down the hatches pretty good. Oh my goodness. I know. There's no point. We just didn't want it. We thought it would be 4-0 or 5-0 or maybe even 6-0. What did you make?

Not just the game, but to your point, like the Boudreaux press, like all of it on Saturday for you. I went through this. Do you know Boudreaux in his first 82 games? Do you know how many points the Canucks had? I don't know. 95. Close. know. 95. Close.

97. Okay. You would think in his first 82 games, the Canucks would have had three points the way this is all being discussed. And last year, 97 points in 82 games ties you with Nashville for the final class spot. Okay.

Look, I don't blame him for being mad. Like I said on Saturday night, I don't blame the fans for being mad. It's really amazing, Jeff, when you think a couple times now they've crawled out of the swamp to get to the edge of the playoffs and they played some of their worst games of the year

at home, Washington, Florida and now this particular one. And it was a terrible performance. And, you know, the Wilds, they were better in the second period, but generally I thought the building lacked energy, the team lacked energy. I don't blame Boudreaux for being as mad as he was. That was a really tough performance.

Like, you know, here on Sunday night, as you said, I'm in Florida. We flew down this afternoon. Unfortunately, got a bit of a delay. And then Kyle Bukoskis and Eric Engels and I were here for the Board of Governors and went to go watch Seattle, Florida tonight. And Seattle looks really improved. Like, that's one thing you notice about them. And then talking to them at the end of the game,

like, that's a group of players who believe they can win i think if there's one thing seattle's going to look for it's going to be a center that can win some face-offs but you can see the confidence really growing on them however florida they fall down in this game and paul maurice calls a timeout in the second period, and he just blasted them. And I was reading his lips, and he said something like, and I forget because it's been two or three hours since it happened, but basically, like, come back and help. And they have Monday off, and someone asked him in the post-game media scrum,

what are you going to learn from this? And he says, basically, we're going to burn this one, give everybody a day off because that's what everybody needs now, and we're going to burn this one, give everybody a day off, because that's what everybody needs now, and we're going to come back to work on Tuesday. But first of all, they look dynamite in their reverse retros. Those things are spectacular. Yes. You can see it with the Panthers.

I thought Bobrovsky played really well on Sunday night, was one of his better games of the year, and I can generally tell that from the group, they were kind of hoping that maybe this is a sign that he'll get turned in the right direction because you're really hoping that that happens. But you can see the frustration with the Panthers right now. Like a lot of their mistakes on Sunday night were, were self-inflicted and you could see Paul Maurice's frustration with that.

And that's the same thing I think I see with Vancouver is that they look at a lot of their mistakes and they say, boy, this is, this is really self-inflicted. Like I have to say, like I watched the Panthers and I think if they had what it would take to get Jacob Chikrin, Jeff, I wouldn't be surprised if that deal was done already. That Chikrin, Jeff, I wouldn't be surprised if that deal was done already. That Chikrin watch continues. I want to ask you about, well, first of all, and again, I will mention this again.

I mentioned the first goal. I'm going to mention the second as well because I love, we all love comeback stories. Love seeing Chris Cherney score. Good on him. Gets his second goal this season. I haven't seen Daniel Sprong live since he played junior in

Charlottetown. But we started this podcast by talking about Tolvanen and his shot. Did you get a chance? I don't know if you went to warm up. I'm always transfixed on Sprong and how that puck comes off his blade so freaking fast.

Elliot, that guy can just wire it. I know there's always everything about the rest of his game, et cetera, et cetera, but man, can Sprong ever fire that thing. Did you get a glimpse of that at all on Sunday? We did because he scored the fourth ball on the ball. Panthers toward the line, kept in, Wenberg across, Sprong scores! A heavy, angry slap shot from the left side from Daniel Sprong on the power play. The Kraken on top, 4-1, 4-51 to play in the third.

Sprong didn't just knock on the door. You know, it was everything you said. It was an absolute blast of a shot, and there was nothing that Bobrowski was going to be able to do. It was a Daniels-sprung goal. I would like to say the thing I liked most from Florida was Eric Stahl's score, his first of the year. Yep. He is run into by Nick Cousins, rolling puck over on the far side.

Cousins shifts it behind the Seattle net. Colin White there in front of Tidson. They score! And the Panthers have tied the game. Eric Stahl to the front of the net, champs it home. Eric Stahl, you think about everything he's done in his career. He's a Stanley Cup champion. He's an Olympic gold medalist. He's basically played for 15 years.

And he's still out here. And think about all the money he's made, Jeff. And he's still out here. And he's still playing. And he scored tonight. It was a goal that kept him in it. You could see how excited he was. That is a guy who loves

hockey. And I just wanted to say, it was nice. I went into the two broadcast booths. Steve Goldstein and Randy Mahler from Florida. And Bill Lindsey is their radio color guy. I saw him. And Bill Lindsey is their radio color guy. I saw him.

And Seattle had their big group here. They had John Forslund. They had JT Brown. They had Ed Olczyk and Everett Fitzhugh. And it's so great to see these people again, Jeff. Steve Goldstein and Randy Muller were telling me, like, last year when they broadcast from the studio, there was one player they never met. He was basically ather for 50 games before

he got traded or something like that they never got to meet him and uh it's just great to see people again that's the best thing to your point about eric stall i couldn't agree more i love guys that want to keep playing until they completely empty the tank. So this year before I don't like the guys are like, Oh, I I'm only going to play. If I can compete at this level, I got a lot of time for the guys that just keep doing it. And they're going to force someone to drag them off the ice.

That's what it was for. One of my favorites, Peter Forsberg. And that seems like that's what it is as well for Eric stall. Give me those guys all day long. Oh, by the way, just as an aside, how did Matty Beneers look? The pass from McCann and the Kraken get on the board. 1-0-4 into the opening period. 1-0. They lead Florida.

Last three games without a point for Beneers. And he's able to just... He looked really good. And there was a play late in the game when the game was still close where Justin Schultz shrugged off Ryan Lomberg. Like, it was 100% a penalty. And Lomberg lost his mind for a couple minutes. And he drilled Schultz from behind.

And he got a boarding major. And it was just a really tough time for Florida to take that penalty. And Veneers was the first guy there. And he's probably thinking, I am not the right guy for this. But I'm the first guy there. I'm not grabbing Ryan Lombard. Well, he did. like he goes in there and there was another teammate and forgive me because i can't remember who it was who went right to his

eight but veneers first of all i scored the first goal of the game he looks really good but like he's gonna score points among his teammates because yeah he was the guy who went to do that you were all over him and you were right now board of governors here i think the thing that everyone's going to wonder about is going to be the cap yep it's one of the early items on the agenda so i was told it's likely it gets discussed on monday we'll see as i was doing my research this week for the 32 on hockey night that's what everybody was asking what are you hearing about the cap What are you hearing about the cap? What are you hearing about the cap?

Because everybody wants to know that the options are it goes up one this year, then four and then five, or maybe it goes up four this year and it kind of evens out, or there's the possibility that two sides agree to kind of flatten it out so it's three, three, and three. Whatever the case is everybody the gms the agents they wanted to go off by more than one this year and everybody's asking that question you think it'll happen and so we should get an update on that on monday but it's going to be close it's going to be really close and i was saying to kyle bokoskis when we're taping our head their gm saying to me that they think it could come down to,

you know, who makes the playoffs. Really, eh? So if you see the league fixed this year for the 16 biggest metropolitan markets to make the playoffs, you'll understand why. So Toronto wins the Stanley Cup so the salary cap can go up? And then Daryl Sutter will be right. He'll be right. He'll totally

get it. We'll look back on early December and say Daryl was right all along. You know, someone said to me that Seattle is already a really big revenue powerhouse in this league. So... That's great. The Kraken doing well. If you want the cap to go up, it's not a

bad thing. Excellent. Okay. A couple of things here to finish up the podcast. One, I want to thank, you mentioned Kyle Bukowskis. I also want to thank Eric Engels, because I know you're driving back to your hotel with him right now. So I know it's tough for those two to not speak. So thank you, gentlemen, for zipping it so we can do this podcast. Yes, thank you to Kyle and Eric for keeping quiet.

And this is the longest Engles has ever been quiet. So it's fantastic. How you've done that, like you've held them hostage somehow to keep them quiet. But before we get to the conclusion of the podcast, we all had a lot of fun with Kevin, with Zidane O'Chara on Saturday. We had talked on the radio about,

you know, the embers are still hot between Vancouver and Boston going back to 2011, not just with the players, but most specifically with the fans. Like everybody has the same amount of hatred and same level of hockey hatred for one another as if it's 2011 all over again. It has not settled at all. But you had a point to make about vancouver like the commentary

people heard what char said and and people heard what bx said and i want to leave the last word to those two guys i did have an interesting conversation with um one of our producers and what he had pointed out to me was that one of the things that did get out at the end of that series was that when the Canucks were up, there were conversations about the parade routes. Yeah. And that did become a public story. That got out there. And I said, well, maybe that's the reason. story that got out there and i said well maybe that's the reason but this producer and for now he will remain nameless he said that is a bs argument and i said why and he said because

that happens at every stanley cup once a team gets close there starts to be conversations about how a parade would look like because you have to do it for logistical reasons and particularly in a hugely popular hockey city like vancouver would be right like if the canucks had won the stanley cup at game seven at home or game six in boston they would have wanted to have that parade as fast as possible. So you have to have those conversations. And what he told me was that happens all the time in every series because people want to know the logistics and TV networks want to know the logistics, especially one as big as Vancouver would have been.

In Canada, you think about it, that would have been a parade Vancouver would have been like in Canada you think about it that would have been a parade that would have been covered on CBC oh yeah TSN oh yeah and sports oh yeah so everybody wanted to know what was going to happen and what I remembered I was thinking about this after my conversation with him in 1996 and I was a big Bulls fan. I love Michael Jordan. He's my favorite ever. Michael Jordan and the Bulls were up 3-0 over Seattle, 1996 NBA final. And Jordan and some other Bulls did some PSAs, public service announcements, saying if we win the NBA title in game four, you know, basically please celebrate responsibly.

We're asking people not to riot, not to damage things, nothing like that in Chicago. And the Supersonics won game four. They won game five. And one of the conversations was, should the Bulls not have done those PSAs? And the Bulls, including Jordan, were like, are you guys kidding us? Like, we're asked by the city of Chicago to ask people to celebrate safely. What are we supposed to do, say no?

And then they crushed the Supersonics in Game 6 and won the NBA title anyway. But I just wanted to add that story. I do know that was a thing. And I wondered, after hearing this story, maybe that's what Charo was thinking about because it was discussed and it did get out there. But my producer buddy says it happens in every series and you'd be

irresponsible not to discuss it. There you go. You need some time to put those things together. That's completely believable. Okay. That wraps up this edition. We have another special 32 Thoughts podcast coming out on Wednesday.

And that's the interview we recorded last week with Los Angeles Kings head coach, Todd McClellan. I'm going to leave you with a little bit from that interview. Just an outstanding question asked by one of the two of us. I can't remember who it was. About the best place in the rink to watch a hockey game. Here's Todd McClellan, a preview of what you'll hear on Wednesday on 32 Thoughts to Podcast. Enjoy.

Standing behind the bench, you mentioned standing behind the bench. So much of how you see the game is from that one fixed position. I remember talking to scouts. I actually, it was about drew Dowdy specifically about, you know, where the best view is to see a certain player. And one scout said to me,

I was totally turned around on drew Dowdy when I watched him from behind the net, behind the glass. And I watched and I saw what his options were. And I saw his decisions. Then I started to understand how great Drew Doughty was. If it's not behind the bench, do you have like a place in your mind? You think, you know what, maybe to appreciate the game a different way or appreciate a player

a different way, I need to be in this corner or behind the net and not standing right in this one fixed position on the bench. And my only real experiences with that is my oldest son, Tyson, who still plays, he's over in Europe right now. When I was fired in Edmonton, I had a significant chunk of season left from basically December 1st to the end of the year. And he was playing college in Denver. So I got to go almost every weekend.

Wherever they played, I'd fly and go watch. And I'd walk into the rink and I'd go, holy, where am I going to watch this game from? and go watch and I'd walk into the rink and I'd go, holy, where am I going to watch this game from? And I want it to be by myself or my wife and I, just away from people just so we can enjoy it and focus on the game. But we picked a lot of different spots or perspectives. The best spot to watch it is still on the bench.

And maybe that's because as coaches we're trained to see things in that situation. But other than that, if I was a fan or if I was a manager, I would want to see my bench, our bench, the opposition's bench. I'd want to see interaction and emotion. So I would always sit facing our bench. It's hard to pick up long areas along the boards when you're in the stand. So maybe somewhere in a corner is where I tended to go.

But I can tell you when we go to training camp, the most confused person in training camp is me because there's 40 players on the ice. They're either wearing black or they're wearing white. I know all of them and I can't watch 40 players. So I almost have to pick a team a day and just focus on that and then go back and watch a little bit of video. So we'll get the meeting after team a day and just focus on that and then go back and watch a little bit of video. So we'll get in the meeting after and somebody will be going, boy, Gabe Velarde was really good. And I'm going, I didn't even see him today. I was watching the other team.

It's so hard. Everybody in the game sees it a little bit different. You watch from the press box, you watch scouts, watch it in a rink in Kelowna or in Kamloops, or they're watching it in a college arena, probably small European rinks. Like everybody sees it from a different perspective and a different height and a different pace. I think the good hockey people put it all together. They're able to see things and put it all together and understand pace changes the closer you get to it.

If you can involve, for a fan's perspective, if you're picking a it. If you can involve, for a fan's perspective, if you're picking a seat, if you can involve as many of the senses you have in the game possible, I think it gives you a better chance at enjoying it. So obviously we're going to use our eyes, but can you hear the players? You obviously can't taste it, but you can almost get an emotional attachment to it.

You can smell it sometimes, believe it or not. Not pleasant, but you can. You know, so as many, it. You can smell it sometimes, believe it or not, not pleasant, but you can, um, you know, so as many, and you can't feel it unless you get a puck or something where it's cold,

but you get, you get close. If you're on the glass, you can feel the glass hit. And the closer you get, the more senses you, you involve in the, in your experience,

the better off it is. So.