32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Woah Canada

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman open with the growing concern around several struggling Canadian teams, especially in Toronto, where the pressure is creeping into the room and the trade options are limited. The guys discuss Montreal signing Alexandre Texier (17:30), Vancouver’s loss to Calgary, and why the Canucks are poised to become rumour central as they gauge the market on their players (19:46). They dig into the Flames’ dilemma between avoiding a rebuild and handling players who may want out, plus reaction to Don Maloney’s recent comments (23:54). The fellas touch on Edmonton’s hard-earned road win in Florida (37:26), Minnesota’s sudden defensive surge with back-to-back shutouts (47:12), and a shoutout to Ottawa (47:41). Elliotte shares a note about Pittsburgh’s goalies being potentially available (49:37), checks in on Andrei Svechnikov’s trade availability (52:54), and provides an update on the NHL/NHLPA’s Milan arena visit (58:35). The Final Thought focuses on Mikko Rantanen’s one-game suspension for his hit on Matt Coronato (1:04:05).Kyle and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thoughtline (1:10:33).Today we highlight Toronto emo power pop band Heavy Sweater and their track X-Ray. Check them out here.Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here.Donate to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation here.Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

Now, you would think, Kyle, you would think that after a busy concert with so much traffic, they would set up the lights so they would all stay green and everybody could just get out of there as quickly as possible. You would think that, wouldn't you? I would think that. Well, you'd be wrong. In theory, you would do that. You would be wrong. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Kyle Elliott and Don back with you. Happy Monday. We're coming off a weekend in which Fridge. The headliner going in was the Stanley Cup final times two rematch down in South Florida. The Oilers victorious down there. You had Montreal and Toronto. Winnipeg Jets were in the news. The injury to Connor Hellebuck and how they're going to deal with all of that. Calgary played back to back, finishing up in Vancouver. Where is your head at?

Where would you like to start when thinking of the seven teams north of the border? I have the title of the podcast for Dom. One last thing you have to worry about. And it's as if I was David Amber, who is Captain Panic. Whenever a Canadian team has a bad night, so we have a group chat. If there's like five Canadian teams playing and they go O for five, It won't take long until Dave's text start coming out. This is a disaster.

Canadian teams are going to be 0 and 5 tonight. We'll be lucky if one makes the playoffs. So I am taking a page from David Amber's Book of Panic. And this podcast is titled, Whoa, Canada. Vancouver 30th, Calgary 31st, Toronto 28th, Winnipeg, lost two in a row as you may. mentioned Hellebuck out now. Maybe Edmonton's season started to turn around.

I think Montreal will be fine. I think Ottawa is obviously fine. Ottawa is carrying the Canadian flag. That's why I didn't mention them off the top. They are exempt from the woe. They are exempt from the woe. They are truly the Canadian capital right now, not only geographically, but hockey-wise. they are carrying the flag but the panic is real in many of these other markets where do you want

to start kyle you're the boss of this podcast you tell me where you want to start well okay if you're entrusting me with that i will start with where i was on saturday yes start be where your feet are right yes so saturday night in montreal leaps and canadians Great place to be on a Saturday, as you know. Can I, first of all, can I, can I say something here before? I have a bone to pick with you. Hold on, I got a bow to pick with you. That was like, how much time went past?

There was 20 seconds after you had said, it's your show. You do, where would you like to go? And you're like, hang on a sec. I need to, I need to say something. That might actually be a new record for me. That was unbelievable. I, you know, I have to talk about the decline of ringside reporting. on hockey night in Canada.

Oh, stop it. And I'm not talking about performance. Your performance is excellent. We have great ringside reporters. But this was, I mean, the decline of ringside reporting. There was a time when some of us, some of us, we're working on ringside reporters on hockey night in Canada. And we would show up in Montreal on a Friday night,

and we would need to be carried to the morning skate on Saturday. What did you do on Friday night in Montreal, Kyle? Got together with producer Jeff Giridat and we worked. We had to go to work. Did you leave the hotel room? No, I did not. I got in a bit later than I otherwise would. I got in late. I stayed. It's like today's players now. It's the same thing, right? It's not like how it was before. Everyone's locked into their rooms. Xbox is packed. Kyle, well rested for the morning.

This is a disgrace. A disgrace. Anyway, take us through what you saw, Toronto, Montreal. Yeah. I used to be a little more lively before I started doing this twice a week. Yeah. Friday's a recovery day now. Oh, my heart bleeds for you.

I can feel it. Okay. So I'm watching that game Saturday, like everyone else that was. there and that's second period in particular you know what it reminded me of what's that took me back to nearly eight years ago to the day november 2017 so we're talking matthews marner kneelander's second year in the league yep it was a game in montreal on a saturday and maple leafs were the young upstart bunch um montreal that year They were older, they were slow.

And up until that season, the Canadians had long dominated that rivalry. They had owned Toronto for a long, long time. That night, Charlie Lindgren started from Montreal. They chased him from the game, not because he was playing poorly, but because Claude Julian didn't want to make him face any more of the barrage, much like Baroube did with wool.

on Saturday. Toronto won 6-0-0. Matthew scored the 5th and 6th goals on the 6th one, like stick handling through everybody off the rush, this beautiful wrist shot, top corner, and he does this little circle along the glass, didn't put his hands up or anything, just smiled at the crowd. I think it memed for a long while afterwards. I know exactly which one you're talking about.

Yep. And I remember being in that building that night and thinking the whole dynamic of this rivalry in particular is going to be different now going forward. Now, certainly Montreal has had their moments along the way. There was the playoff series in 21. They've won their handful of games over time. Anyways, watching that on Saturday, Elliot, was like a mirror reflection, a mere opposite. It was an unal reverse card of that game. It was the arrow pointing back going, we're reversing it now.

It was like the exact opposite of that game eight years previous. So there was something you said to me in the aftermath of that game. And we were chatting on Sunday as you were traveling home. You said to me that, and this is why I really think that the sideline job, the ringside job is still so important. you said to me that you have the sense that the concern before it was kind of creeping into the lease room now it's there

like I can I already felt it in the organization you could feel it on the coaching staff but it's always different to me when it's in the room because I always think think like coaches are pessimists they're born to be pessimists oh we won that game eight to nothing but we didn't dump the puck in well three times in the third period that's what coaches are taught to do front offices they're always pessimists we won the game 10 nothing yeah but we

sucked the game before that's what they're built to do that's the way they are taught to think players are the optimists we can always find our way out of this we can figure this out so when you said to me on sunday you see it seeping in that's when i get worried for a team because the dressing room if it goes it's the last place to go and you see it eh starting to definitely like you're running out of answers it feels like naturally you're wired all the time to think going to get out of this you're going to get out of this but it's how they look when they say it

the tone in their voice when they say it the energy of it all starting to shift a little bit now we have to point out of course they're not at full strength they're missing a number of key guys and that's a whole other side story as well you know it's true but you know I'll just say this I've been watching Tampa a lot the

past week, look at what they're missing and they're grinding out wins. Totally. They are grinding out wins. You have to find a way everybody is beaten up this year. Like even teams that are good and going well and their records are good, they're all talking about how they're getting crushed by the schedule. Like, and look, they're down. And that's a thing for Toronto.

They're one of the few teams they can say, we haven't had a brutal schedule. They've been at home a lot. The back-to-back's been favorable. they haven't been beaten up in the slightest yet. Yes, now they're going on their first big road trip. But you're right, Kyle. Like injuries are crushing this league. The schedule is crushing this league.

You have to find a way through just like Tampa has. They've done an unbelievable. I mean, we're going to find out Monday. They lost Kutjarovin Point and that went over Washington on Saturday night. And Cooper said we probably won't know until Monday how bad it is. So if bad at all. So, you know, there were two things you do. did in the game as the reporter that I thought were outstanding.

And we'll get to the second one in a few minutes. But the first one was you showed the montage of Barubei before the game being asked about injuries. And he's like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And you can just tell he's tired of injuries already and he's tired of talking about them. And, you know, he got upset at the end of the game about how they collapsed in the

second period and they had no pushback. And Baroube is kind of taking the position that I was there. yes we're hurt and yes it's a thing but everybody's hurt and we have to find our way past it I also got the sense from those clips I think the uncertainty of some of these injuries is driving them crazy that's the impression I really got like why are you guys asking me I have no idea we really have no idea like look like we'll see when Matthews comes back but initially they were hoping Saturday now maybe Wednesday Stollers, it's worse than they realized.

Carlo, I think, was longer than they expected, and they have no idea on TANF. So I think in Toronto's case, what's contributing to their frustration is that all these timelines are warped or not what they were thought or longer than they thought, and that's only added to the frustration. But I don't, like some teams I look out there and I say they can do something, they can make a move that might help them here. Even though a lot of teams are saying there's just not enough out there trade-wise,

there are teams I can see that if they wanted to, they could pull off a significant move to help themselves. I'm not sure right now, barring trading the guys they don't want to trade, that Toronto has that ability right now to pull something off

that's really going to make a major difference for them. So I think, not that they're not, trying but I think that what that means is that they know aside from the injured guys the cavalry isn't coming so they've got to figure this out and the one thing I really feel and I wasn't there like you are is I think this group has begun to realize that this is going to be harder than they thought Kyle much harder than they thought big time I mean you look at it Elliott they wake up this morning their last in the eastern conference now you

You'd also flip that and say, well, there are only four points out of the playoffs because it's also jammed up in the, in the east. It's a lot tighter than it seems to be in the west right now, or everybody's closer together anyways. But it's, it's turning into, and the big thing with Perube, like he keeps talking about their veteran team and all the things that he's seeing go wrong. He goes, that's not supposed to happen with this type of group. Like you look down the hallway at Montreal and say, they're one of the youngest. teams in the league, like they should be the ones having issues with confidence after giving up a couple of goals. They should be the ones having issues, putting away games in the third period. They should be the ones having problems, believing they can come back. But it's not

the case. Those are the issues that the Leafs are going through. And it wasn't just Saturday. It's been much of this season. And I would just say for Montreal, because they both, I think they had combined two wins and 14 games coming into Saturday. And both had bad goals. problems, both teams. Yeah. Although wool has come back and played pretty well. Yes. Yeah. It was an important start for Dobish on Saturday. And you can just, and St. Louis reminded it, and it's very much modern day coaching, right?

It's my job is to convince people, right? That's so much of that role, especially at the pro level. And it's, you can tell from where they were in October, when everything was clicking for them, they were getting away with those last minute heroic comebacks, winning in overtime, we're winning, we're winning, we're winning, and then you start getting feeling good about all the goals going in, habits start to change a little bit, and you can tell the last few days for Montreal, it was a snapback to reality, and it showed it how they played much of that game on Saturday. And when the bell center is allaying before the second intermission siren goes off, it tells you about everything you need to know. Oh, yeah, when the Olay start then, you're in a bad way if you're the visitor team. And that's a bad omen. Yes, that's not a foolish crowd there, right?

Like, they know when to do that sort of thing. Plus, it was Toronto's. They were happy to rev up early. Oh, yeah. Did you at least go out Saturday night? Yeah. Okay. Briefly.

Nothing crazy. Oh, terrible. Anyway, a couple of the things. Martin San Luis, that is one. One greasy mustache. Greasy. It's Movember. So I support it 100% good on you.

Greasy. And secondly, I wanted to say I loved your interview with the Jack Eye family as the brothers got a chance to play together. That was the, I'm not much of a wagerer, but that was the easiest bet of the night that those two guys were both going to get into fights. I would have bet your next year's mortgage, Kyle, on that, that both of them were going to be fighting that night. Oh, no, I wish you would have. And it was, you did a great interview with the parents. They're, they're really nice people.

I have to say, I tracked down, uh, Simona's number. That's the mother, Simone, uh, to send the, I wanted to send, we, remember a couple years ago, we did the great piece on the family where they were so helpful. So I just wanted to send a note just, wishing your congratulations on both brothers, Arbor and Florian, making it up to play their first game together in Florian's NHL debut. And I said, all the best to you, Jack, her husband, Sophia the sister, and all of the Jackeyes.

And she wrote back a couple of minutes there and she goes, you left out our other daughter, Dominica. And she feels left behind. So I had to profusely apologize to Dominica and make sure that she, She knew that she was included. I felt terrible at the moment, but the gesture was meant to be kind. But it was pretty funny. I liked that she clapped back at me like that.

Both of them was very well done. Give me a good laugh. Yes, excellent. And I rewatch that feature early of the day just to kind of refresh my memory of the family story and that. And it is a good reminder that every now and then you are capable of doing good work. It was a very good piece. That's a pretty good line, Kyle. Yes, I can do good work from time to time.

But the key is set the bar low. It's been the greatest bit of advice I've taken for you so far through all of this. It's been very good. Okay. Well, before we move on from Montreal or quickly, you were anticipating this as early as Saturday. Sunday, it's official that Alexandrexiae signs the one-year deal with the Canadians after terminating his deal with St. Louis. makes sense. Montreal was in on David Camp

a week previous. They've got injuries up front. So shouldn't be overly surprised that they bring Texier into the fold. No, not a huge surprise. And, you know, Texier, look, Camp reminded people that you can do this. You're not in the NHL.

If you want to walk away from the money, you can. And sign yourself a lesser deal that will allow you a better shot at playing. Because the issue with Camp, with salary as much as anything else and that was the same thing with Texia 2.1 and I guess the Blues had let the league know that this was going to be a possibility and this could happen and they gave permission for teams to at least talk to him to see what he'd be willing to do and I heard a couple of things number one I heard his preference was east and secondly

a few teams told me that once the Canadians were in they knew that they were doing that they were because French guy, Montreal Canadiens, going to be tough to beat. And that's exactly what turned out to be the case. And, you know, the thing is, Texade takes a deal at one year to pro-rated $1 million. If it doesn't work, he can be put into the miners and it doesn't count against the Canadian's cap. It's below the number that you can clear to the miners. So hopefully it works out for him.

We don't have to talk about that. But that was a factor here. And, you know, I will say that the other Eastern teams were kind of like French guy, Canadians were doomed. They knew pretty quick, I think, that he was going there. That's the impression I definitely got. Now, Kyle, the other game we were watching, a Canada-Canada matchup was Vancouver and Calgary on Sunday night, a four-point weekend for the Flamed.

They beat Dallas on Saturday. They beat Vancouver on Sunday. Sunday, Calgary, it's, you look at these standings and you would feel Calgary 31st, but surging Vancouver 30th, but dropping. To me, watching on television, Kyle, it was kind of a passionless night in Vancouver. It's not to me that the Canucks didn't play hard. They did, but they got beat. And Dom, you were there. You were working the game, asking no questions. how did you find it in the in uh in the in the in rogers place on sunday night the only way i can describe it is there was a lot of apathy like jason brough tweeted out

like nobody booed no there was no like displeasure from the fans like it was almost like people just accepted their fate and and left with their tail between their legs like it was just just another canucks game now we're so we're van Vancouver Sports, I wondered if it was nearly like a Vancouver Sports eclipse over the weekend, right? Because you had the Dynamite, PWHL, home opener on Friday, back at the Pacific Colise. Those uniforms look really good, by the way. I really like those jerseys. So glad they're back in that old barn.

The white caps, unbelievable on Saturday, off to the conference final in MLS at BC Place. Did the Canuck or Vancouver sports fans simply run out of gas to feel? any sort of way by Sunday. I don't know. It also could just be where the Canucks are at. It's also like when you live in Vancouver and it's gray all the time, it's tough to have emotions for three straight days. I understand how that happens.

That's true. Yeah, we are very somber people, yes. But Elliot would know all that time he lived out there. That's right. Yeah, you know, it's probably a little bit of acceptance. I don't deny that. this kind of where the team is now. I don't have much to add about the Canucks right now except for this, Kyle.

I think this is going to be rumor central in the league for a while. Because until this long term gets sorted out with Quinn Hughes, it's not only going to be about him, it's going to be about what they do with some of the players around him. Like there were garland rumors last week. Sherwood is still not signed yet. You know, depending on what you're thinking, do you sign Sherwood or do you trade them for pieces that can help you?

I think the, I think the Canucks are going to be very interesting. And I think there's going to be a lot, not in the same way that there was noise around them last year. that was very different, but I think there will be noise around them for what are we going to do about this player? What are we going to do with that player? And I think at the very least, if this continues, you're going to see the Canucks start to put some names around the league to say, okay, what can we do with this person or what can we do with that person? What is their market value? And ultimately, there'll be a decision.

on Hughes. So I think there's, I think we're headed into that part of the season where there's going to be noise around those guys. By the way, Kyle, did you see Zari when he scored in that game on Sunday night?

I think he was a little excited. I saw him and I heard him all the way here in Edmonton. It's been hard. Scored opening night. Hasn't gone great for him since and good interview with Brennan Parker post game he uh you could tell that one meant a lot more than just number two next to his name

on the stat sheet there was a lot of noise around calgary and uh you know Kyle I don't know if you watched on Saturday night but I talked about it briefly um I thought this was self-inflicted by the flames like I talk about this a lot in Canada in the in the Canadian market there's a lot a noise just because of all the attention on these teams. And what you can't do is pour gasoline on the fire. And I thought last week, Calgary poured gasoline on the fire. Dominole did some interviews. Brendan Parker did a great job during the intermission of the Buffalo game.

And Eric Francis milked that for clicks, a two-piece interview, two-party interview. I really like Eric. He's got a great sense of humor. He just laughs off all that stuff off all that stuff. It rolls off his back. But he did a great interview with Don that was on the website. And, you know, one of the things that's really difficult to figure out. And I'm not trying to insult anybody here, although it's going to come off really badly,

is that I think a lot of these teams, they try to differentiate between what is social media noise and what they're paying customers and sponsors. really want um you know i i've talked with teams about this before like when something's really hot on social media how does this affect their business and the thing that teams tell me the most is what you have to be able to do is understand is if the social media uh commentary is really an expression by the ticket buying and the people who spend money on your team because those are the people ultimately you have to listen to. The people who are spending money on your tickets, the people who are spending money on your sponsorship, and especially the people who are

spending a lot of money on those things. Or is it just a loud group of people, but at the end of the day, it doesn't affect your bottom line. And that is what happens in situations like this one. And like, there was obviously a lot of reaction online and in media about the two Maloney interviews, teams like the Flames, they will sit there and they will say, what does this mean really for our business? And, you know, I think this. that was a self-inflicted error like look like there's the trade deadline isn't until

march there's not a lot of great offers flowing right now like i can tell you right now even if the flames wanted to trade nasm cadre as of saturday there was no offer there that was making them say hmm maybe we should trade nasm cadre and then The same case was for Blake Coleman, and the same case was for McKenzie Weeger, the same case was for Rasmus Anderson, the same case was for anybody else on that team you might want to throw into that list. There was no trade offer, like, even if the flames wanted to tear it down to the studs, there wasn't anything on their desk last week that was going to say, oh boy, if we reject this deal, we might really regret it in five years. and that was why I think the timing didn't work because there was nothing like if you got to the trade deadline and it got out that you rejected really good deals because you didn't want to tear down that's when you go out there and say this is what our vision is and this is why we did it there was no reason to do any of that like there were people going online saying tonight at the flames game you're going to and this is Saturday night and this is Saturday night You're going to see jerseys thrown on the ice. You're going to see a booing crowd.

We didn't see any of that. And we saw a crowd that is the flames played hard and won the game that was actually pretty excited. They got their money's worth for the night. So that's not to say that people aren't upset or people aren't legitimately angry or there isn't a group of fans that don't like to hear what they say. But I was really watching for that on Saturday. Was that an angry crowd?

And I didn't see it. so I would sense that the Flans would look at it and say we've got to get past this week and we've got to get back on our path and right now all they're going to do is they're going to play hard like they're not going to make the playoffs I think we all know the math it's too much they're not going to make the playoffs but what you can do is you can play hard what you can do is you entertain your public that at least goes to home games and you can say hey you know what, maybe the team isn't great, but at a good time tonight, and they got a win on the weekend, and then a second one on the road. Like, the thing you have to do is compete. Now,

Kyle, the interesting thing said to me is, if you really look at Calgary, the rebuild is already underway. Like that, I was talking to someone on Sunday morning, and they said, what the Flamford has said is that we're basically in our rebuild already. Like, look at it. All of a sudden, they got Perek, they got Grin, they got Reschney and Potter, who they took in the first two rounds last year, they got Brustowitz, they got Hansik, who unfortunately got hurt on that play, and he looked like he was starting to come on. They have Henry Mews, unfortunately got hurt this year, but he looks like he's going to be a good prospect for them. They got a couple other guys, people were telling me, like, people said, like, the flames have lottery tickets. They may not have the biggest one, but they look like they're on track to get one of the biggest ones this year. So, like, in a lot of ways, the rebuild is underway. Secondly, the other thing

that I said is that the flames may not want to deal these guys, but what happens if the players say, you know what, I want to go somewhere else? Now, remember, Calgary went through that a couple years ago. They dealt Hanofin and they dealt Markstrom. And some of, some of these players have long-term contracts like Cadre does. Some other guys don't have as long deals. So eventually, they might decide, hey, this isn't time for me or I'm not ready to go through where we are now at 31st in the league. Now, I want to stress that's not happening right now. That's not the case. They don't have any trade requests in there from their veterans. Believe me, I checked on Saturday. None of their veterans are asking out right now as of Saturday. So, but if

it changes, then Calgary might be forced to pivot. They were forced to pivot away from Hanofan. They were basically forced to pivot away from Markstrom. So they don't have full control over the situation. So we'll see how this plays out. But right now, Kyle, they are playing hard, they're competing. They've got a long way to go. They're not going to make the playoffs this year, but we still have 60 games to play. We still have months before the trade deadline. We don't have any great offers yet. It's way too premature to know where the Calgary Flames are going.

And I'll tell you something else that matters here. They know until this new building is built, it is very hard for them to get free agents. So they're not going to be throwing money at their problems in free agency. because I think right now they don't think they can. And the other thing they're not looking at is you don't see them making panic trades for short-term help, right? I think they know better than that.

It's also really interesting. You know what another team told me about them, Kyle? Is they said that with Wolf, they don't think they can be truly bad. I know it hasn't been the ideal season that he would want. He started badly. He's starting to come on. See what you mean?

And now like Cooley's putting together some good efforts? Yes. And you know what? Cooley's spot was in trouble at the beginning of the year. And now he's on fire. And now he's the Nitsky of the National Hockey League with We're All Gonna Die. Yes. Yes.

What was the great night? Nothing matters. No one cares. We're all going to die. We're all going to die. Yeah, very good. But I did, another team did tell me that, that the flames of kind of said like with Wolf there, they don't really think they can be truly awful because they

think the beginning of this year was a blip as opposed to the real deal. The last thing I just want to say about the Flames is one of Don Maloney's answers was he wouldn't talk about Conroy and Flames fans assume the worst. I'll just say I'll be very surprised if he's not extended. He's in the last year of his deal and I would be surprised if he was not extended. I think they are taking care of business in that front office, and I think they will take care of him too. I would be surprised. I have been wrong before,

and I will be wrong again, but I would be surprised if he does not get extended. Because I think they feel he's doing a very good job. And you mentioned the new building that's coming. That's all going to be part of this. It's one thing about attracting free agents in the meantime, but nobody wants to be limping into a new venture like that, by way of how your team looks, results-wise,

so I can understand that all part of it. And would it be foolish to think that in reading, in listening to the things Don Maloney had to say over the past week, that they would not echo similar feelings to how ownership feels about all of this? Oh, I think so. Like, Don Maloney's at all the Board of Governors meetings with Murray Edwards. like he knows exactly what they think um but like again as as i said you know people said oh they're not going to trade these guys well let's just see okay rasmus anderson is at the end of

his contract right and we've talked about this before one of the things i've heard about anderson is he changes his mind staying or going like you and i change socks which is like every six weeks. So like last year, like last year at the end of the year, he was like, I don't think I should come back. And he showed up at training camp and he was like, I think I might want to stay. But he's got to find a deal that they're both sides are comfortable signing. And right now, they're not. They're not even close, from what I understand. So, like, that happened with Hannafin. Hanifin, they were, they actually had pretty much like a verbal agreement. And then they went on a losing streak and he kind of changed his mind and Calgary backed away and eventually he got

dealt. So they kind of have some experience with this. But, you know, that's the thing here that kind of, I think, kind of got lost this week, is that the players have say in this, too. You know, if Anderson can't make a deal with Calgary, and he's starting to play really well, he's played really well lately, you know, he's going to be gone. If player X, name one of those veterans, says, this looks too long for me, I'd like to go somewhere where I might be able to win sooner, then no matter what Calgary thinks, they're going to have to move that player so there's time here to sort this all out in the meantime the players are doing what they have to do and that is going out there and they play hard they don't always win

but they play hard and i'll tell you something the thing that i thought was really good and i know we're going to talk about ranting in a couple minutes but huberto making a beeline for him like if they had if those players weren't going or those players didn't care nothing would have happened but the guy on the ice who maybe you least thought was going to be he was the closest guy and he didn't think twice by the way let me say this if you start a fight with a guy who gets thrown out of a game you should not get an instigator that is terrible rule terrible rule agreed totally and I think just last thing for the the Calgary fan base feels like a lot of them look at it, Elliot, since 2009, they really

haven't had consecutive playoff appearances. I know they, you know, 2019 was a great year. They get into the qualifying round in 2020, right? So it's trying to find, okay, where's the proof of the plan of where this is all going from their perspective? Like I said, this week was, that one was on the flames. They created a problem for themselves that they didn't need to create. Like, I don't blame the fans at all for this one.

Okay. Edmonton Elliott, down in Florida, where their season ended the last two years. By the way, that pregame interview with Marshan that you did and then Biazza jumped in partway through, first of all, do you realize, I don't know if he even saw it? Did you know, like, what he was reacting to right as the interview started? Like, something was going on off camera. camera that his eyes lit up at. Did you notice that?

No, I actually didn't. Okay. All right. Maybe it was Sam Reinhart walking in like the star of Miami Vice. Could have been. I love that. What an outfit. So, okay.

I had a lot of lonely nights in high school, but I was happy to stay home and watch Miami Vice on Friday nights. Before you were out till 3 a.m. in Montreal on Fridays. That wasn't until I had a professional career. That's right, yes. No, I didn't know what it was. But first of all, it was Brian Spears' idea, the producer. It was his idea that I was going to start the interview, and then Kevin was going to walk in. And initially, it was pretty funny.

Like Spearsie said, you ask him two questions, and Kevin comes in for the last one. And then Kevin and I changed it. I said, no, I'm just going to ask one, and Kevin's going to come in for the second one. And we said, you know how producers love this? We said, Brian, we're producing this segment now. He's like, okay, go ahead. So, but it worked. It worked really well.

Yeah, it worked really well. And you couldn't help but notice the photos over both of Marchand's shoulders in the background. Hey, that was, uh, I actually wondered now that you mentioned that he was smiling about something, maybe that was it because you know what, Kyle, that might have been it because initially when they were doing the test with the, with whichever technical person, was standing and testing the headset, he was down the hallway. Like the hallway was in the background.

So what Kyle's talking about, for those of you who didn't see it is, Brad Marchand stood next to a wall where you could see them lifting the Stanley Cup in two pictures. So it was two like action shots of them scoring from the, I think it was just the last year's Stanley final. It was action shots.

Okay, I thought it was holding the Stanley Cup. So, but it was, so Marchand stood in front of action shots from last year's Stanley Cup final and when we were testing the shot Kyle it was down the hallway so I wonder if Marchand moved. If he cheat. He said let's do it

here. That's what I said. I looked it was you couldn't help but notice what was going on behind it. Maybe that was it. I'm wondering if that's the game that turns around Edmonton's season. Now we just got to wait and see.

Because, I mean, I didn't see much of it. I was doing the game in Montreal at the same time, but it looked like an honest, an honest W on the road after a road trip that felt like was never ending. And I wasn't even part of it for the oil. Well, it was a long road trip. And I think if you're Edmonton, you're sitting there and saying maybe this is the game that gets us going.

And as we talked about on Friday's pod, it was their 16th road game of the year more than anyone else. so you kind of look at it and say we were so negative and pessimistic about the way the oldest were going now you can look at it and say hey I think they only have like one more big trip left you can sort of

set it up as we got through this we survived it wasn't great but we survived and we've got more home games left than anybody else does so there is a positive way to spin that I thought there were a couple things about this that were interesting number one number one, they went to Skinner.

Yep. Like, I like them throwing the gauntlet down at Skinner. And there were some nervous moments there because it was 4-1. They knocked Bobrovsky out of the game. He was coming off of a shoutout against New Jersey. And they were up big. And Florida got back in it, but Skinner held. Because we both said on Friday's pod that we thought they should have started Pickard

because he gave them a great game on the Thursday in Tampa on a back-to-back after Skinner and them hadn't played great Wednesday in Washington. But they went to Skinner, they threw down the gauntlet on them, and I like the others challenging him like that. I do. So they called up this kid, Clattenberg. Somebody texted me and said, like, does every team call up guys that you randomly throw into your blog?

But I was surprised they did that. was actually a little worried about it because I was like, I don't think this kid is ready for this. Like this is Florida, man. And even though they're beaten up, they're the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and they are mean and nasty. And I thought maybe they were asking this kid for too much too soon. But it didn't get out of control for him. And when he did get kind of mugged a bit, they all rallied around him. Like that was the most spirit that Edmonton is shown in a game all year, and it should have been, to be perfectly honest. It was a great game.

It was a good win for them. I don't want to get chewed up on AJ Greer's Instagram, but I would like to say that if there was one thing in this game I didn't like, and you know me, Kyle, I like a mean, nasty game. I didn't like the tackle on the fight. It's just not something I'm crazy about in general. I think guys could hurt their heads and, you know, I generally think that AJ Greer, who apparently had a hand injury and indicated that to Trent Frederick in the penalty

box, that he had a hand injury, he couldn't fight, and is generally quite willing. I wasn't crazy about the tackle. It's just not a good thing. Fair enough. Fair enough. And then they went right to the plane and took the long flight home right afterwards, which I understand. They were on the road long enough, but got back in Edmonton in the wee hours of the

morning. What did Gene Prince Base then? It was around, what, 415 and 4.30? Yeah. Gene was going right to the tanning salon. That's right. You got a 5 a.m. I got a 5 a.m.

Bake. Yeah. He goes, it's better. It's better early. Better for your skin. So Edmonton looks like potential on the upswing. We'll see now. We'll see.

Better, you have to take advantage. Can I say one more thing about Pickard? Of course. So that game they played, look you mentioned, they lose in Washington on Wednesday. They were horrible in Buffalo on Monday. They lose in Washington on Wednesday. They weren't very good there either.

And then Pickard plays the back end of a tough back-to-back, Tampa Bay, and they lose in overtime. But he played great. Kyle, this is just me talking based on what I was seeing there. the way their goaltending has been going, like I don't think they expect Pickard to be great, but I do think they're like Pickard, you got to at least win games for us.

And it hadn't gone well for him to start the year. That looked to me like that was a game where the Oilers players said, we have to win this game for him. And they didn't. They lost an overtime, as I said, but, and they ran out of gas late in that game.

but they came out as good as they've come out in a game in a bit, I thought that they really played that game for him, as in we need to help him because he needs it. Because what's been his hallmark since coming up with the Oilers two years ago? Just win. No matter the circumstances, no matter how crazy things are around the team, no matter how big of a game it is, you could put him in in spot duty. And you knew he was going to at least give you a chance.

Yeah. And it hadn't started great for him this year. By the way, you're in, uh, you're in Edmonton today to do a piece on Pickard, right? Yes, Moncton-born, hockey day in Canada, in Moncton this year. We'll be out there for a live show, just as we were last year in Canmore. And you had been at hockey days in Canada years before that. And so, yeah, we're going to spend a little bit of time with, with Calvin here on Monday. And you've got to be up early, right?

got to be up early got to be up early finish this soon then better finish soon you need your beauty sleep don't want you showing up with the picker with like bags under your eyes

down to your nose I know he'll have no time for that between him and Dee Hambly I'll be quickly cast aside who's a quarterback in this whole operation so that'll be good to do all right what else we got to get to here before it gets too late Elliot

Winnipeg well you know Winnipeg you know there in a tough time right now. Hello Buck hurt. They've lost two in a row. All of a sudden, Minnesota is a defensive juggernaut.

You cannot score on them. Back to back shutouts. Back to back shoutouts. A team meeting, Elliot. Jared Spurge and orchestrated. Team meeting to just air everything out. Nothing particularly about peel and pain off the walls.

As Mike Russo pointed out in his article on it on the athletic. That was on Halloween. And they're 9-1-1-1 now in November. they're getting saves that that's as much as anything else right it's you get saves and you're just your chest just puffs out and that's a good that's a good tandem gustus and walsted i would be curious to know if you looked at that beginning of the year where would you rank them i bet at the end of the year we're going to be looking at them significantly higher i'm i'm not jumping to conclusion on the jets right now like they're going through it a bit

I'm going to watch and wait and see, but I do want to shout out Canada's best team, Ottawa. What did you say that normally they cough up a hairball on this trip and they're off to a good start? Well, they've let a lot of points go out in California the last few years, especially when you look at where the Anaheims and San Jose were in the standings, not all that long ago. But they've come out ready. Like that game last Thursday in Anaheim, that game was fast. It was tight checking. It was good hockey. And they beat him and did the same thing to San Jose on Saturday without their captain.

Though it looks like he could be starting to get kind of close. Kind of close. Stozla's gone up a level. A lot of the guys have big compliment from Chris Pronger on Saturday. The old Jake Sanderson Scott Needemeyer vibes. Like that ain't a small thing. No. And they're getting saves too.

Like after a very rocky and nervy training camp in first few weeks for Allmark, he's looked steady. This Stephen Holliday that got called up for them, I know a couple people who are watching him in the H.L. And he's got one assistant, two games with the senators. He's got 16 points in 15 games in the American hockey. league now one of them's a goal he's got 15 assists but i've had a couple of people who say to me they think he can play at the n hl level not sure how high it's going to be but you know he's a big guy he's

six four um but there there are some fans of his from a hl games so i'm i'm curious to see uh where that goes all right just a couple other things uh uh i I know we're going to get to Svechnikov here in a second, but just a couple other things here, Kyle. We were talking about teams that have goalies available. I got a note, because we're saying, like, who's really available? I got a note from someone who said, you left out a team, and I said, oh, yeah, who's that?

And they said, the penguins. And, you know, the penguins are going really well right now, and they've had some injuries at the position. which always complicates things. But basically this person said to me, if you look at it at its base, they've got Tristan Jari, they've got Shilovs, who's played very well for them, they've got Sergey Mureshav, who's been up there while Jari's hurt, and the fans love him and the organization likes him. he's a really talented young goalie 21 years old

and also they have Joel Blunkfist who was also injured for a while in the American Hockey League but you know it was one of their top goalies last year so Pittsburgh has four guys now who knows what they would do all this and when but you know someone just said to me

that you should be including the penguins as a team that has goal to heading depth. A couple other calls I got. We wondered about Scott Wedgwood, who won again on Sunday night, pitched a shutout at the Chicago Blackhawks in a one-nothing game. And we wanted about him being a third for Team Canada. He, I do not believe, is on their list right now. So unless he gets added late I think that I've mentioned Darcy Kemper

before I didn't mention him on Friday's pod but you know obviously he'd be very much in the mix but Wedgwood is not right now as far as I understand on the team Canada list but boy he's having a fantastic season nor do I believe Kyle is

Morgan Geeky who is now the NHL leader in goals as we wake up Monday morning with 17. Oh, right. McKinnon's right. Tide, right. Excuse me, you're right. A co-leader.

It's not news of McKinnon leads and goals, but it is news that Morgan Geeky does. Yeah. It was one of the great lines he gave us when they came through Toronto. How's life now is a 30 goal score in the NHL, same as it was when I was a nine goal score. I got to write that down. I forgot he said that. Yeah.

That was pretty good. he's still red hot. Okay. Oh, yeah. Speaking of feeling hot at least at one point. I like guys like that. Yeah. They ride the wave and they recognize that who knows how long this is going to last, I'm not going to get cut up in it. Just do what I do and make sure I do it well. He was cut loose by Seattle a couple years ago, Elliot. Yeah. Not qualified. Like he, he knows he's been at both ends of all of this and has carved out a wonderful role now in in Boston. Okay, let's get the Svetnikov here, Fridge, like talk about kind of a story that came out of nowhere, at least on the outside here.

So you had that as part of your Saturday headlines. Now, things seem to be much better than it was early on in the year, but describe what you all learned and heard with Svetchnikov and the hurricanes, at least to start this season. So it was Saturday afternoon and, you know, you make your calls and you try to, you know, see what's going on out there. And, you know, someone said to me, have you heard that Svetnikov is available? And I was like, what? Like there's, I thought they were talking about his brother.

And I was like, and I was like, me and the Carolina Svechnikov, like, Andrei Svechnikov. And the guy said to me, yeah, like that one. And I go, no way. And he said you should look into it. So I made a couple calls. And basically it was, it was. it was as it was explained you know he was early in the year he was struggling um he didn't have points in his first eight games and he was down on the fourth line and there was one game i think he played

1148 but his ice time was way down and i guess it was sometime during that span that he said look if if you guys want to trade me because you're not happy with me or you don't think i fit here um i I'm not going to be opposed to it. And I don't know how it got out to teams, but it got out to teams. And I guess they got called. And I don't know who. Like I, I'd love to tell you who I think called, but I just don't know. But, you know, they called and I heard Carolina and said to them, you know what?

We don't want to do this. And we are not inclined to do this. But if you want to make us a monster offer, like a monster offer, we'll think about it or consider it, whatever. And I don't think, like, I don't, sometimes these stories I do, they knock more stuff loose. This didn't. I don't think they got anything that they would even remotely consider doing for it. Meanwhile, it has sorted itself out. He's back up on the first line with Ajo and Jarvis.

and he's producing. They lost 4-1 in Buffalo on Saturday. Suddenly hot Buffalo won three of their last four. Lukinen's won two in a row. But before that, he had 12 points in 13 games. His ice time was right back up. So I think for now this is really cooled down. But the only reason you keep it on your radar

and the thing that really stood out to me was it just indicated that, you know, if Svecchikov ever gets back to a place again where he's not happy with his usage, then this could all flare itself back up. But overall, I got the picture of a guy that the organization thinks is pretty valuable and generally he's pretty happy there. But, you know, as someone said to me Sunday morning, Kyle, it's just another example of the fact that players now, are flexing their muscle. Like they're saying, hey, I'm not happy here. I'm not prepared to be as patient as we used to be. Like we talked about this on Friday's pod.

There's Mitukov, there's Lambert, from Winnipeg. There's Svetnikov, although it seems to be calm down now, Kyle. It's the players are not shy anymore if they're not happy. Well, that's what I wondered if this was. a buildup of things that had gone on, I don't know, years, something from last season when you have a guy that, I mean, you took into your organization a high draft pick back in 2018, a team that's made the playoffs every year, they've been competitive, he's been an important part of that.

I know there's very important times where he's missed because of injury, but it just seems strange where after all of that and eight games into the year, it's not an ideal start down the lineup and suddenly, hold on here. Now we're looking at or at least contemplating the idea of moving on. It seemed a little knee-jerk to it all. But to your point, maybe that's kind of the era that we're entering here in some cases. Players and the representatives aren't afraid to flex that compared to the past. I'll tell you this, too.

And everybody I dealt with here was very professional. and another team called me on Sunday and they said they hate how this stuff gets out like he's they basically said that's like three in a week basically right and I just said can't blame reporters for being great at their jobs

that's why I wonder yeah that's another feather in my cap no I don't think like that but I know it's just it's just like it is it is like that like teams desperately try to keep a lid on this kind of stuff hey i can see why i can see why because that was a big one on saturday holy smokes okay before we get a final thought to elliott you did the arena updates in milan for the olympics on saturday as well it's something

we have talked about there but there's a little morsel of new information you just wanted to add into that dialogue. So we kind of talked about it and I think we're all trying to figure out what's the timeline here for when this really gets worrisome. And the consistent answer I got was one month pre-Christmas. There's supposed to be an event to take place there like a trial event at the beginning of January. And obviously if that doesn't happen, everyone's going to be in major freak out mode.

But I've basically heard that the League and the Players Association have kind of agreed that they're going to bite their tongues until pre-Christmas. Now, there is a board of governors in the second week of December, so we'll see if Betman sticks to that, but I've basically been told a month. And it's interesting, like I thought, and I said this on Saturday, I thought when we were told there was no plan B,

I thought it was the league in the Players Association who said, we're not going anywhere else, we're playing in Milan or nothing. It wasn't like that. It was the other way around. It was like, apparently, I don't know who it was because I wasn't in the meeting, but I heard someone said, like, should we come up with a plan B? And the IOC was like, there's no plan B.

We are playing at this rink. And it was like, okay. Now, I know, like, the League of the Players Association, talk about pouring gasoline on the fire. They are really trying not to do that. I did speak to someone on Sunday who his, I know someone who's seen the rank and they said that they think that when this is all done,

the biggest issue is going to be quality of ice. Like, just like, because they're so, they're so close to it now. And stories like this is why I did a home renovation once. I am never doing it again. Never. It was the most stressful, non-death related thing

I have gone through in my life. I am never renovating a house again. So anybody who's been through this knows what it's like. But I think the biggest concern is going to be the quality of ice and the condition of the ice. But like, you know, someone said to me

that initially they were like, the roof is too low. And so they were working on that. So it's like, it sounds crazy. It just sounds crazy But I'm just going to I'm in the position of it's going to be like Sochi We're going to get there

And and to be fair to Sochi The rink was done a year in advance It's going to be like Sochi We're just going to show up and it's all going to happen It's going to be another one of those Olympics Where we talk about things are not going to get built And we're going to get there And just like magic

Things are going to get built Yeah Just let me worry There's Alfred E. Newman everywhere. You know what? I have a What Me Worry statue in my office just to my right. A statue? Yeah, it's a statue of Alfredi Newman saying, what, me worry.

That's excellent. It's probably about 10 inches tall. So when I was in the sixth grade, my sixth grade teacher, every day after lunch, there's about 20 minutes, was blocked aside for reading, okay? So you could bring in your own book or whatever if you wanted to, or he had basically every monthly Mad Magazine issue from, so 2004, 2005 was when I was in the sixth grade, basically every issue from like the 10 years previous that were there,

the back of the class you could pick from. Oh, I used to love Mad Magazine. And the coolest part, so he was an active subscriber. So throughout the school year each month, the new issue would come in. And so you'd come in from lunch. And so at the beginning of each month, one lucky student would get to their desk. And the new issue of Mad Magazine was sitting there waiting for him.

So it was a reward, right? If you've done well, he. Yes. So Mr. Whitmore, shout out to you. It was, uh, Mr. Whitmore. Yeah, it was a great, uh, back when, back when the world was right. Hey, Wade, yeah, Mad magazine in sixth grade classrooms, nobody asked any questions. Now, here's, I'm really going down a rabbit hole here, everyone, sorry.

Did Mr. Whitmore get to do the fold-in at the back, or would the student do it? No, he would leave it. Like, that was the student who got it, like, it was untouched. That's awesome. The only thing that concerns me about this story, honestly, Kyle, is that you were in sixth grade in 2004 and 5. Oh, God, am I old. Well, now kids being drafted in the NHL are born after those years. So, like, we're well past that.

Well past that. It's wild. All right. Let's get to the final thought. That was a good story. That was a really good story. Oh. Mad magazine, man.

I read that in the 70s. So good. Spy versus Spy. You imagine being in that writer's room, like, every month going, all right, what are we coming up with next? And it was always topical. There were some twisted people. Yeah. Yes, unbelievable with those story meetings must have been like, okay, final thought here.

So Miko Retinin gets the five minute in the game for the hit on Romanov. Unfortunately, we learn now he's going to be out five to six months, going to have shoulder surgery. And then, as you mentioned earlier in the pod on Saturday, the hit on Matt Coronado, five in the game. I will be honest, Elliot, I did not realize that this was a rule in the NHL. So automatically, because of that, Rantan is suspended. one game because if you have two game misconduct penalties in the physical infractions category and if they're done in a time frame that does not have at least 41 consecutive regular season games between them, it's a one game automatic suspension. I think a lot of us are

wondering, is just the one game enough in this case? But that's the ruling that's coming down from the NHL and the Department of Player Safety on this one. He's really lucky. He's he's really lucky it's not more than that and to be honest with the amount of time it took them to make the ruling and some of it to be fair might have been because they were out west and you know because their next game's in edmonton so it was a couple hours behind but i i bet you they were wrestling with that do we still have another hearing and given them more the outcome of the romano thing was controversial i like when after talking with bexa and pronger about it,

I had understanding of the skate thing with Mayfield. Like they both looked at that and said, yeah, I could see it being a mitigating factor. But when you have two in a week and, you know, the thing about that one is sometimes I will buy the argument that a player turns back into the play and gets hit because they turn their back into it, I do not accept that argument.

in Coronado's case. Coronado did not materially change his position or anything like that. He saw Bixel. He didn't see Rantanin. He wasn't expecting Rantan to be there. But to me, he did not materially change his position. He was simply trying to protect the puck in case Bixel came at him. And like I believe there, Rantanin has every responsibility not to hit him in the numbers. He knows that Coronado can't see him. And like I said, like one of the things you, especially when it comes to headshots and things like that, does someone materially move their body right before a headshot? And if you look at Corridato, I don't think he does it. I really don't think he does. He doesn't see him coming. He's looking at Bixel. He's trying to make a play.

like his back is to Rantanin the whole time. Rantanin can avoid hitting him right in the numbers. So I think Rantanin's extremely lucky that the injury wasn't worse. I suspect that one of the reasons there's no suspension is because Coronado came back into the game. And it's on Rantanin in that case to be more aware. And hopefully he looks back at this week and says, I had one, I had another, I'm lucky I'm only getting one game. And I'm sure the Allenders are looking at this and saying, really, he got away with one.

And then another one happened and our guy's out for five, six months. So I'm sure they're upset and hopefully ranting in learns a bit of a lesson. The Islanders, I think, are still pretty mad about the whole thing. They don't, I think also, too, because of the second incident, they were kind of, I bet, really unhappy that he was unpenalized that much for the first one. And, you know, it's kind of interesting that all of this happened in a week where Tom Wilson was a real force. There was the Jake Evans play. There was the Kucherov play. but also there was a point in the Edmonton game

on Wednesday night, Kyle, where he could have destroyed Connor McDavid and he backed off. He changed course. So Wilson, even though he is still a force, a menace, he,

and there's still teams that are angry that he does what he does, he has definitely, changed the way he does things out there, definitely. Well, he probably saw a potential teammate in February going, I'm not going to like my chances. If I heard him. If I hit this guy, we'll both be off the team.

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it. And did I hear you on the radio where you were talking about, you know, him yelling, guys to kind of say, now apparently that was not the case when he caught Evans on Thursday night in Montreal. Oh, he didn't, eh? Did not. Okay. One guy that I guess is really good at that, Nick DeLorey.

Oh, he does. He'll give you the heads up. He'll still crush you, but he'll give you the heads up. That's good. It's a good piece of information that you didn't do it with Evans. Yeah. Man, those, the Canadians in the capitals, they hated each other after that first round series last year. Hated each other.

And it was, yeah, that was spicy Thursday, too. like it's uh the carryover was real sometimes it's just kind of manufactured on the outside going oh this is going to be a big one and nothing really ever comes of it uh there was good good bite there thursday so like don't don't go away when montreal washington comes up on the schedule that's worth sticking around for finding it somewhere on sports net plus or otherwise all right that was the final thought why don't we take our first break we'll come back with the thought line you're listening to 32 Thoughts Podcasts. All right, welcome back.

We have made it through the disaster portion of the program, and now it is time to build ourselves back up, Elliot. It's the thought line. All positivity all the time. Yes. Now, what about thoughts on the thought? line before we get to the main body. Nothing too huge.

I just wanted to, I had one note from somebody who was watching the Buffalo Chicago game the other night from Buffalo, the one, the Sabres won 9 to 3, and they did the Canadian anthem and the U.S. anthem. And he was wondering why in a game between two American teams they would do the Canadian National Anthem, Buffalo always does as a thank you to all of the Canadians who go over the border to support the savers and eat their chicken wings. It is a combination of a thank you for both. So that's the reason. The other thing is, I just did something I wanted to talk about, and that is that I went to Paul McCartney on Friday night. Now, I have been lucky this summer.

We see a lot of great concerts. We saw the Who in September. Roger Daltrey is 81, and he belted it out. but here at the newly renovated TD Coliseum in Hamilton, we saw 83-year-old Paul McCartney belt them out for three hours. He was incredible. And there were some things I just wanted to shout out about that. They actually had a private event earlier in the week where Earth, Wind, and Fire, performed for some people

who were lucky enough to get invited. I couldn't go. Holy smokes. Yeah, that would have been awesome. I couldn't go. But I went to McCartney and, they did a really nice job there like the seats are super comfortable very comfortable seats and there's a lot of places i know everybody listening to this where we can all watch games or

sporting events or concerts or whatever and we're like oh my god these seats are a nightmare these are among the most comfortable seats i've sat in for a concert so they did a really nice job i met a young man named michael dudak who was in line ahead of me in the merch and his father's name was Dave and really nice kid and he asked me what podcast I host and I said 32 thoughts with you Kyle and he goes why would you call your podcast 32 dots he didn't get it and that actually stuck with me maybe we should call it that 32 dots I also wanted to think a guy with him was Sam Salerno we were in line there was a big lineup to get in and he said, can I see your tickets?

And we showed them our tickets. And he said, there's a shorter lineup over here. So Sam saved us a lot of time. And he mentioned that back in grade school, he was a teacher for the Schaefer brothers, Matthew and Johnny. So I wanted to shout out Sam Celerno. Now, there's one thing that happened after this concert that is a personal pet peeve of mine, Kyle. And I would like to speak directly. to the people who run the great city of Hamilton, okay?

Oh boy, here we go. So we get out of the concert and we go back to our cars and we get on King Street just outside where the arena is. And I'm not joking, there have to be about 15 traffic lights between King Street and the 403 to get back to Toronto. now you would think Kyle you would think that after a busy concert with so much traffic they would set up the lights so they would all stay green and everybody could just get out of there as quickly as possible you would think that wouldn't you I would think that I'm guessing well you'd be wrong practice in theory you would do that you would be wrong and the worst thing about it was I timed it after a while. Like you have to understand, these lives were pretty close together. They were literally about 50 yards from each other, right? And they would only stay green for 30 seconds, and it wasn't even closed in sync.

It wasn't like three of them would be. There would be red, green, then three reds. Like nobody could go anywhere. So I would just like to say, and first of all, it's not like Toronto's any better at this traffic light syncing thing, but this one in particular, really, as they said in family guy, you know what really grinds my gears? Oh, nice. Hamilton, after a concert, synchronize your traffic lights.

We love it there, but we want to get home. You guys want everybody at a downtown. Set it up. Now... This is a public service announcement brought to you by Elliot Friedman. and you're in the car and Steph's in the car too and she patient through all this

and Max is there are you the one losing their mind and Steph's got to calm you down like what's the time? Oh yeah I this this is this is me this is a personal thing yes that this like I'm just I'm gripping the wheel

like it's a stress reliever and you know what the funny thing is I was just thinking about it. Like, I didn't want to get upset because there was a C.H. news van, like, right behind me. So I know if I get road rage, I'm ending up all over Hamilton News. Yeah. Hamilton, great seats, bad lights. Yes.

Yes. That's it. I'm glad you had a good time at the concert, at least. That sounded. Everything was great about it except getting out of it. of the city. All right. Send your complaints to Kevin B.XA.

Yes. And it'll all get sorted from there. All right. Let's get into it. Benji. All right. Benji. Hello, SportsNet stats and supporting cast.

I think that's us. With Jeff Carter's number retirement by the Sue Greyhounds approaching, I started thinking about number retirements, and it got me wondering this. In the NHL, which player, not active for at least. 10 years, has the most all-time points, but does not have their number retired by any team. Oh, can I make a guess about this? This is what it's here for. Mark Recky.

Holy smokes. Am I right? Yeah. Yeah. That was without hesitation. Yeah. I just immediately started thinking of a guy who had a ton of points and doesn't have the number retired.

Wow. Mark Recky. No time at all. Now, because Benji didn't specify and I wasn't sure, because he's referencing Jeff Carter having his number retired by his junior team, I didn't know if he meant just NHL team, no retired or no Jersey retirement anywhere. So Recky is the correct answer among NHL clubs. He does have his number retired by the Camloops Blazers.

I did my own digging here to try to find him. who would have the most points that doesn't have their jersey retired at any level. I believe I got the answer here. And the great thing is about our listeners is that they will let us know if I am wrong. But do you want to crack at it or do you want to hear it? Has Brandon Shanahan's number been retired anywhere? Yes. London Knights have retired?

And London nights. Okay. All right. You know, Kyle, I nail this wrecky one. I'm so proud of myself. And now you're undermining me with this one. No, no, I don't mean to. I just trying to steal my thunder.

I know how this works. Jealousy runs rampant in the media business. I am a red light in Hamilton. I say you will not go any further. What junior or NCAA team with this guy Or even international team with this guy have played for Okay Well, he's Canadian

Okay He played junior in the queue For a team that no longer exists They have since relocated I'll say they are now the Cape Breton Eagles but when he played they were somewhere and something different had an excellent career obviously a Hall of Famer but a number of different stops along the way

is it no he's not a Hall of Famer the first guy I thought of was like Vincent Domfuss but he's not a Hall of Famer Um, I'm trying to remember. They used to be in Granby, right? Very good, yes. He was a, this player was a Granby. No, because I remember Granby won the Memorial Cup.

This guy played with Domfus. He played with Mark Recky. Who am I completely missing? Uh, it's not Garbeno because Garbinow played in Shakut to me. Correct. Who is it? Pierre Turre. I can't believe I didn't get that in Granby for two years had great numbers of course but then

right into the NHL with Buffalo from there yeah so I guess just didn't play there long enough and had great years in Buffalo the island and moved around quite a bit yeah right yeah St. Louis Dallas finished in Colorado that was good that was good that was a good question very good. Thanks, Benji. All right, Miguel, good afternoon. And listen to the pod for about a year now, and I've been wondering about this since the summer free agency period. Why don't UFAs, or RFAs after July 1st, ever sign a one-year deal followed immediately by signing a max-term extension, effectively making it like a max-term deal plus even one or two years? I know players are eligible to sign, an extension when they are in the last year of their current contract. So this would only work for someone who is a UFA or RFA after July 1st. Is there a rule against this or has just no one thought of it yet? For example, could Nikolai Eilers have not assigned a one-year deal in Carolina when he did and then immediately sign an eight-year extension the next day?

Miguel, your specific situation is not allowed to happen, but there is something like that that did happen. Here's why your specific situation cannot happen. If you sign a one-year contract, you are not allowed to sign an extension until January 1st of the next calendar year. So you couldn't sign one on, well, I guess you could. If you sign one on December 31st, you could always sign one on January 1st, but the NHL would come after you like crazy. But there is a situation that is kind of what you're talking about, just so. Sperry Kotkinemi, when he signed his offer sheet with Carolina from Montreal, he signed it in August of 2021. He's signed for one year at $6.1 million, and then he's signed an eight-year extension with the hurricanes in March of 2022, which is eight years at $4.8 million.

So that has been done. Now, most people won't do that because of A, the risk of injury. B, some teams are just like we don't want the NHL breathing down our necks about this. I think the risk of injury or something going wrong in the relationship is by far and away the biggest answer. That is why people don't do it. Now, I'll say this too when Jamie Ben, not the last deal, but one before it, he met with the Vancouver Canucks back when Mike Gilli ran the team when he was in when he was a restricted free agent anybody could talk to him and they talked about a one year deal at a big number that ben would sign an offer sheet and then

the Canucks would give him another big contract but it never came to fruition obviously so it's been discussed but there aren't too many examples of it aside from the cot Kenyemi situation. Very good. AJ from Orange California. Hello everybody. I'm AJ from Orange California and a lifelong Ducks fan. After watching the no-goal call on Wednesday night between Anaheim and Boston, which I mostly agreed with, I did think Mason McTavish initiated contact with Corpusallo. I also thought he did not have quite enough time to reset, which also could be debated, I suppose. But my question is, what is considered? a reset for a goalie and how long is reasonable.

Thanks again and love the pod. Adrian, I would love to give you a great answer on this point. We're about to muddy the waters here, buddy. You know, this is this is purely subjective. Now, one of the things that does happen is they have a former goalie who's around a lot, and that's Kay Whitmore. Whitmore is a key member of the NHL hockey operation staff. And he, like, for example, he's the one that's been at the forefront of goaltender equipment, whenever there's issues with goalies.

For example, you know, we talked a little bit about recently the mass snapping off and it happened to Joseph Wool again this weekend. And Kay made a presentation to the general managers at the recent GM meetings about the goalie mass. snapping off and some of the things that we had showed indicating that they might want to go away from buckles and what they might do. So he's kind of their point man for this, and he is one of the people that he will often look at that and say from his own history of playing the position, does he think the goalie had a chance to reset? So I'd love to tell you that there's a set criteria and that it's this, this, this, and this,

I don't often guess right myself, but it is a subjective thing. And Kay Whitmore is one of the people that helps go through it. Yeah, because there's certainly no set timing when the situation room is looking at it. But as you alluded to, two of the main things they do look at, A, did the goalie have time to get square to the shot again? And did they feel he had an opportunity to track where the puck is

after receiving contact. And sometimes it's not as much about, okay, how much time in between. It was how much contact between player and goalie. That plays a role too. Also, quietly when obviously they're on headset with the officials on the ice,

I think a lot of referees around the league, they've got a pretty good book on, okay, which goalies are trying to fight through stuff versus others that maybe not as much. Oh, I'd love to see that book. Sometimes that can come into the equation. And the only other thing that I was reminded of again today and doing a little bit of digging just to make sure

I had a bit of context for what the situation room is thinking is that when they do go into a coaches challenge situation and they're reviewing video, the officials on the ice, when they're looking it back, they have also the ability to if they see things differently through replaying. go, oh, that's different than what I thought I saw live in real time. Now I feel different about what the call should be. And that can impact what ultimately happens to.

Good stuff. Tanner from Kempville. Hey, guys. I somewhat enjoy listening to the show. And I have a few questions. I hope you geniuses can answer for me. When was the last time? Well, you've come to the right place.

Yes. When was the last time? time a coach or team called for an opposing player's curve to be checked. When was the last time a penalty was called for a legal curve? But most importantly, why does the NHL still enforce a maximum curve on the blade? The rule was made back when everyone used wooden sticks and some goalies still didn't wear masks. Now everyone can blast the puck and the goalies are very well protected.

Why not lift the restriction and let the boys fire away? Would it really be that much of an advantage? Thanks for your time, guys. Well, I think to a certain point, yes, it would be an advantage. And I think that's why the rules are still in place. And why you don't see very often anymore is because, I mean, everything is by way of curve and lie in all of it, it's factory ordered from the stick suppliers as opposed to the wooden blades players

would get and they'd take a low torch to it and they could finagle it however much or little they wanted to by way of adding a little more curve to it. It's just not something you can really do anymore with these composite sticks. And it's a tricky one to look up because this falls under if someone gets called for an illegal curve. It's just under illegal equipment. That's what the penalty would be labeled as. Same thing as if you're playing with a broken stick or something like that. So it can be tough to sift through.

But the good people at SportsNet stats, I believe they track down. Can I guess? Yes, the last time. Remember when I told the story about Ron Wilson and Patrick Wob being ready for him? Ron Wilson also said that he'd asked for a TAMU Salani stick and he noticed it was illegal and he got Salani penalized during a game. But I don't remember when that was. That would have to be close to 10, 15 years ago.

So T. Musilani did get called for this in 2007. I'm not certain if Ron Wilson was the. coach on the other side. However, the most recent one that we were able to find for playing with an illegal stick, Ron Wilson was also the coach that called for this one. Can you name him? He is the, the magician of this. Yes. He's, he is, he, he, he looked. Well, I, I can't. He was coaching Toronto at the time. He was coaching Toronto. Yeah. March, 2009. and this player, in an effort to try to not get it checked, quickly snapped the blade and ditched it into the bench.

Why do I remember something like this? One of the last players to use would. Wouldn't be Ryan Smith, was it? No. Okay. Came into the league later than Smith. Wait a sec. Is it Spetsa?

Yes. Really? Yeah. I'm trying to think if that was a hockey night in Canada game. It wasn't so much the curb, but it was the width of the blade that he got him on. It's too wide. It's like, yeah, there's a great video of Spetsa like on, uh-oh, they're on to me. Steps on the blade to break it and chucks it into the bench to try to get a new one. But it was too late at that point.

Oh, wow. I'm not surprised. Wilson was really good at that stuff. He was a genius. that. All right. Last one here. Okay. Unnamed, but it comes from Rochester, New York. How about that? Okay. Hello, Kyle, Elliot, and Dom. First time, long time. Have a question about how starting goalies are announced. So often on social media, we see a team's beat writer say, insert starting goalie name here, is in the home net at morning skate. He'll get the start tonight. So when did this home net thing start? Has it always been this way? And beat writers in the age of fantasy hockey and gambling just caught

presumably the goal he is told before the skate he is starting so he is supposed to go to the home net what if he wants to practice in the away net it's the little things that keep me up thanks for all the content have a fun rest of the season when did this start Kyle did you look around and ask this up

well morning skates in general started I think the first versions no I think you go back to the early 60s really yes I always thought Fred Shiro was the I always thought Fred Schiro was that guy. Scotty Bowman's been quoted saying he was coach of Chicago at the time, this guy, Rudy Pilos in 1961 and 62, I think.

Yeah, he won a Stanley Cup there. He was before Joel Quenville, he was the last coach in Black Hawk's history to win a Stanley Cup. Right. So I think he did it. And at that time, it was more for the players to test out their edges on their skates. So they don't really go on with much other equipment other than skates on, just to make sure. okay, they're good for the game tonight, that's it. And then morning skates became more of a thing.

I would just say oftentimes, yes, you know, if you're the home team, the starting goal, they'll be in the home net. It's not always the case. Like I remember a lot last year in Ottawa, Lena Sallmark, before a home game, he would be in the visitor net during the morning skate. So some goalies just have their end of the rink that they always like to operate in. I think he would do the same thing in Boston out at their practice facility. he had his end of the rink that he always liked to practice in.

So typically it's that because, yeah, as a goal, you're spending two periods there. Same way when the visiting team comes on for the morning skate, usually the starter goes in the visitor's net. So to just get comfortable with the sight lines and everything about your surroundings, but it's not always the case. Good question. Unnamed, if that is truly your name. Unnamed from Rochester, New York.

We know you're out there. Whenever someone comes in as anonymous or unnamed, I always wonder if it's the fugitive. Oh, yeah. Searching for their one-armed man. Yes. By the way, did you see, I sent it to you and Dom, the photo at, remember Alex told the great Joe Nguyen-like story earlier in the week.

He sent us the photos of him as a baby in the cup. and then Joe Holden him. Autographed beautifully. Fantastic. He delivered. Great stuff. All right, that'll do it. For the thought line,

1833, 311, 323. If you'd like to leave a voicemail, or you can email us at 32 Thoughts at Sportsnet.ca. One final break on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. We'll be back after this. All right, welcome back.

Just wanted to give you a quick heads-up before we go on some games to keep an eye on nationally across the SportsNet family of channels over the next few days. So on Tuesday night, Edmondson Oilers, their first game back after that long seven-game road trip they host. The Dallas Stars are going to be seen on the Sportsnet main channels, 9 Eastern, 7 Mountain Time. And then on Wednesday, a trio of games. part of the Scotia Bank, Wednesday at Hockey Shabang, 630 Eastern Hockey Central with David Amber and company, Toronto and Columbus on SportsNet, East Ontario, Pacific, and 360, Winnipeg and Washington on SportsNet West, and Calgary will be in Tampa on Sportsnet 1, all of those games beginning a little after 7 Eastern time.

Reminder as we continue to work our way through variety of different Canadian artists' season to wrap up our shows. Each song that we feature can be found on the 32 Thoughts, the music playlist that producer Dom has been kind enough to put together and continually update over on Spotify, including this track from the band, Heavy Sweeter, who are an emo power pop band from Toronto. X-ray is the third track off their debut album, So Sad, which was produced by Alex Edkins of Mets and released earlier this year. The band just put out a new record called Hemorrhaging, streaming everywhere now. Here's Heavy Sweater and X-ray on 32 Thoughts, The Podcast. My X-Ray is still on your wall from when me and your dad fall. Yeah, you had kept it as a man or he did not forget how he can be when you're missing your mom.

Your bed's made the back of the car. And you don't know who you are. You say your dream pool is a recipe for self-destruction. destruction that can't be. I always thought you had charm. We don't call yet. I just found the courage to say that I don't want to live without you, you, you, you, you, you, you, You

Weeks turn of months That you're gone And I'm still weak in that arm It's a dull pain but the memory hurts more than it could physically I never told you at all Don't go yet I just found the courage To say that I don't want to live without

You You You You You You Don't go the courage. Don't go. I just found the courage. Don't go. I just found the courage.