Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Revisiting the Penguins Jaromir Jagr trade more than 20 years later

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

Twenty-three years ago the Penguins traded Jaromir Jagr to the Washington Capitals for a whole lotta nothing. Patrick and Hunter talk about the trade, what it meant to the franchise at the time, and h...ow Jagr’s trade to Washington actually helped usher in some of the most successful hockey for both franchises. Next, now that the draft is behind us, they keep the so-called bad vibes going and look back at some absolute whiffs in the Penguins' draft history, especially in the Crosby era. Finally, RC Cola is out, Coca-Cola is in at PPG Paints Arena, a long-time member of the Penguins staff retires, and the first player from the 2024 draft class signs his ELC.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COMand add a big win to your summer bucket list!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.c Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Locked-on listeners, it's time to get out your pens, pencils, and notebooks, because on this edition of the show, Hunter and I are taking you right back to history class. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet. joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day.
Starting point is 00:00:49 And don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. And before we get going today, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. terms apply. So Hunter, it's July. There's not a whole lot going on right now. Everybody has seemingly gone to the cottage. General managers aren't making a ton of moves. And we're in the dog days of summer. So there isn't a whole heck of a lot to talk about. But there is a historical moment in the Penguins franchise that happened 23 years ago today. And that is how we are going to start this show in the first segment. I can hear and feel and see a lot of people starting to wince
Starting point is 00:01:40 because they probably know where I'm going with this. And that is on July 11th, 2001, the Pittsburgh Penguins traded Yarmir Yager to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Chris Beach, Ross Lupichuk, I hope I got that right, Michelle Sivek, and future consideration. I probably botched all those names because just like you, just like everyone else, I don't remember a lot of them. I will say the best thing to come out of that trade for the penguins was Chris Beach. And even that, not so great. He played an even 100 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins,
Starting point is 00:02:23 scoring 10 goals, 17 assists, and 27 points, and was a paltry minus 29 in his days with the Pittsburgh. Penguins. So it's a tough day in Penguins history because this really was the beginning of the shortly lived dark ages for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They began stripping this thing down to the bone. Yes, they were under a more stable ownership, so to speak, because the Lumew Group in 1999 had officially bought the Penguins when they were in bankruptcy from the disastrous Howard Baldwin ownership. excuse me. So Hunter, there's a lot to unpack about this trade. And there's something you brought up that I kind of didn't really put two and two together here, but I should have because, you know,
Starting point is 00:03:16 we follow this team pretty closely. So let everybody know what your take before we hit record was on this trade. Well, first off, when are we going to get those future considerations? And what are they going to be, you know, just giving the future considerations for maybe another player? I just want to know, what the future considerations part is for this trade, even though it's been a little over 20 years, right? But no, when I look at this trade a little over 20 years later, the trade sucks, the return sucks. Everyone knows that. That said, it feels like just think of what that trade led to overall a little over 20 years later. You get Sidney Crosby, you get a Gennie Malkin, you get for a time Jordan Stahl, Mark Andre Fleury was there for a long time, you get
Starting point is 00:04:02 all of this success. Don't get me wrong, people. This trade sucks and we'll forever suck just because of everything that went into it, just how the Penguins ownership, it was in a bit of a better situation, but it wasn't nearly as good as where it was, Pat, you know, for example, 2006, a few years later, 2007, when, you know, 2009, when I feel like the height of the Penguins' ownership was under Lemieux and Ron Burkle. And obviously Fenway Sports Group is the team now after they sold their share.
Starting point is 00:04:32 and all that. But just, again, the trade stinks, but my biggest point, look at where it has led to over the last 20 years with how much success this team has. I kind of think of it as, I hate saying this, unnecessary evil, I guess, because I never wanted Yarmier Gager to leave. I always wish that he could have played his entire career here. But just looking back on it, everything that has happened. It just feels like a necessary evil, so to speak. I know I repeated myself three times probably in the last 30 seconds, but I feel like that's really where I stand on it. You're bang on. It really was a necessary evil at the time. I know that it kind of got lost in the trade at the time. You know, it was the inspiration for my former podcast's name, Dying Alive. When Yager said he felt
Starting point is 00:05:25 like he was dying alive here, that got misinterpreted at the time. But it was a cheeky thing. that a lot of people remember. But you think about where they were at that time. Yes, they were in a better position because Lemieux and Hitt in Berkel had purchased the team out of bankruptcy. And they were still in a very precarious position, though, because I was saying this to you before we hit record. There's a lot of things that went wrong prior to this.
Starting point is 00:05:54 And I know every non-Penguins fan loves to hit us with the, oh, you guys were bankrupt, you went it, you almost moved. blah blah, blah. It had nothing to do with fans support and city support. They were under a disastrous ownership. I liken it a lot to the Arizona Coyotes because hockey works in Arizona. Arizona State has showed that. When the Coyotes had somewhat stable ownership in the early 2010s, they were doing well. Look at those playoff crowds they had when the team was in Phoenix.
Starting point is 00:06:27 I mean, they were selling out those games every single time. the atmosphere was incredible. It's shown that it's able to work, but they just had awful ownership for so many of those years. And it led to Arizona going to Utah. Yeah. And the Howard Baldwin ownership, people forget this. There were two big thing or a handful of things that led to them having to declare bankruptcy.
Starting point is 00:06:50 One, he purchased the team for all of $1,000. But the conditions on that was that he took on all of the team's debt that they had. So he didn't, you know, buy the team and give it an influx of capital. It's, they still had a mountain of debt as a franchise. They had one of the worst arena deals in the national hockey league with the then civic arena that was hemorrhaging money. They had a terrible television deal that netted them absolutely next to nothing in, in revenue. And they couldn't get any revenue out of the arena as part of their arena deal.
Starting point is 00:07:28 And then you add in the fact. that I may have some numbers incorrect on this, but I know that there was a clause in Mary Olamy's contract at the time, and this led to him being able to purchase the team out of bankruptcy because of all the money he was owed. He essentially had a clause in his contract that said he had to be the highest paid player in the National Hockey League. So any time any player signed a bigger deal than Mario Lemieux,
Starting point is 00:07:55 his contract instantly goes up and they owe him more money. So they'd made the worst financial decisions possible in that. And then add in the fact that if you remember the old Mellon Arena, not a lot of corporate sponsorships, no premium seating outside of, say, sitting in the club level at Center Ice, there were no real sweets or anything at the arena. So they made no money and they could sell out every night. I say this to people all the time. There is a world.
Starting point is 00:08:26 And obviously, it's only a bit of an. operating theory, but it can work in a world where you can run a successful sports franchise and not sell a single ticket. And that won't matter. The other thing about this trade, though, that's very funny, relating it back to what you said about getting the Crosby era, this great successful era in Penguins hockey, not only did this Yager trade help bring that in, it helped the Washington Capitals get into their successful era because just a couple years after they acquire Yarmier
Starting point is 00:09:01 Yager in 2004, they trade him to the New York Rangers. They begin their tear down and guess who they get Alex Ovechkin. Yeah. So like, say like this trade never happened per se. I mean, do the penguins get Cindy Crosby? Do they get all these great core players? Are they bad enough to tank to get Cindy Crosby? I think we need to just, I think that's a very fair question to ask.
Starting point is 00:09:26 Yeah, I mean, you think about it because Yarmor Yager, him and Mary-Olamyue are absolute mutants because you look at their stat lines from the 90s and 2000s, and that's fully in the dead puck era. That's when everybody's trying to emulate the New Jersey Devils. They're playing the neutral zone trap. They're committing to defense. They're not worried about scoring. And these guys are still putting up video game numbers in an era when nobody scores. So you figure Yarmir Yager's still going to do that.
Starting point is 00:09:58 And it's going to leave the Pittsburgh Penguins in the mushy middle. And they're never going to be able to. And this is pre-draft lottery too. So there is no, oh, if you finish in, you know, the bottom 10, you might get a chance to jump up in the draft. No, if you finish with the 10th worst record, you're getting that pick. You're not getting a chance to get the number one. So it's even worse back then because there is no draft lottery.
Starting point is 00:10:22 There's no chance that you can leapfrog. few teams and get the first overall pick. Right. I agree with you. And just letting him go, I guess, just signal to, you know, the fan base, just everyone in the NHL that, yeah, this team was going to tank. And obviously, we all saw what happened just a few years later when you bring in this new core group.
Starting point is 00:10:41 And, you know, we've had just so much success over the last 20 years anyway. So again, looking back at it, trade sucks, return sucks. But in the end, we still got to have the celebration of Yarmour Yager this past season, his jersey's up in the rafters. That is what is most important to me, along with the championships this team has had. Yeah, same here because player, and I know you and I have a little bit of a difference in age, but, you know, Lemieux, Yager, Kevin Stevens, all those guys just, they are the reason I love the sport. They're the reason it's become such a huge part of my life. And we've talked about it at the time, seeing 68 go up to the rafters was just an all-time moment
Starting point is 00:11:24 in this franchise's history. But that will do it for this opening segment of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. And you know what? We're going to keep the bad vibes, I guess, going in the second segment. Because again, dog days of summer, not a whole lot of news to cover. We're going to talk about some draft whiffs in the Sydney Crosby era. And let me tell you before we get to this second segment, there are some big misses. But we will do that right after this.
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Starting point is 00:12:48 All right, welcome back to the Thursday edition of the locked on Penguin's podcast. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. Thank you as always for tuning in and making this your first listener watch of the day. And like I said before we went to break, we're going to keep these supposed negative vibes going because we just got done with the draft a couple of weeks ago. The last two drafts for the penguins for now appear to be fairly successful. We like a lot of the work they've done. They've brought in some solid prospects, despite not having as many picks as we would like them to. So we're going to take a look back. We're going to hop in the way back machine here and
Starting point is 00:13:26 look at some drafts in the Crosby era. And I want to start with one draft that, oh boy, in the Crosby Malkin-Latang era, this one, they missed out on some serious, serious talent. And before I say the draft, I want to make sure I add this caveat. A lot of teams missed on these guys too. And we know the draft is a crap shoot. Every guy that looks like he can be a superstar can end up being a bust. Every guy that looks like he's going to be a bust can end up being a superstar. You never know. It's the ultimate randomization. So the draft I'm referring to is the 2011 NHL draft. I will start with the Penguins first round pick, which they had at 23rd overall. They pick Joseph Morrow. Never played for the Penguins. Only ever played 162 NHL
Starting point is 00:14:20 games, scored nine goals, 23 assists for 32 points. And here are some names that were taken after him. Philip Dono, Vladimir Nemestikov, Ricard Raquel, yes, I know he's become a penguin since, and Brandon Saad. So they missed out on a bevy of talent. And there's one more that I'll get into right after you give me your thoughts, Hunter, but who they whiffed hard on the 2011 draft. Yeah, that one was not good. And just to take that a step forward, there was also another pick where they whiffed in that draft as well. Round two, 54th overall, Scott Harrington played all of 10 regular season games for the Penguins. And he was taken before Nikitukuturov, Vince Trocheck, and Johnny Goodrow.
Starting point is 00:15:10 I know a lot of other teams passed on those players as well. but those two were such massive whiffs overall in that draft. Both Harrington and Morrow didn't do a thing for the Penguins overall. It was not a good draft overall to start for Ray Shiro in 2011. No, and I mean, I don't want to dump on him because he obviously brought a lot of talent into Pittsburgh as the Penguins general manager at the time. He obviously made the host of trade, which was absolutely fantastic. He helps architect the team that wins the 2009 Stanley Cup. But you look at his draft history from his time as the Penguins general manager,
Starting point is 00:15:58 and he missed on a lot, a lot of players. So let's go one year back because Scott Harrington was the next one I was going to say, bring up those names. 2010, kind of similar. They've got a first round pick, 20th overall. They use it on Bo Bennett. Now, we know Bo Bennett, fan favorite. He was even in on the joke that he could never stay healthy.
Starting point is 00:16:24 He's a great Twitter character. He's a very fun personality. I always remember he would always sit right by the camera when Pierre McGuire would do his pregame interview with a player and just make the goofiest faces. Bo Bennett was so funny because, like, one of the injuries that he had, he scores a goal,
Starting point is 00:16:45 goes over to the glass, jumps up on it, and then it's revealed after the game that he got hurt doing that. I'm just like, that is your injury luck summed up. There was also a tweet after the Penguins won the 2016 Stanley Cup,
Starting point is 00:16:58 and I think someone put out there saying, like, oh, hey guys, Beau Bennett's here, and it's a picture of an ambulance. I'm like, you guys are just, the funny thing was he actually liked that, and responded to it and thought it was hilarious. That was my guy, Loll who sent that tweet out.
Starting point is 00:17:12 He is, he played into the joke. It was fun watching him when he was in the lineup, but man, the poor guy could not stay healthy. But there are two names in one of them, again, another trend here that you'll see a little bit with some of these draft picks, guys who ultimately became penguins, but two names were taken, he was, that Bo Bennett was taken before, excuse me, Evgeny Kuznetsov. and Jason Zucker. So that was a really rough one. I will say, though, great pick in that draft 2010, round three, 80th overall.
Starting point is 00:17:48 The Penguins take Brian Rust. Yes, I was going to get to that because while Shiro did screw up at times in the draft, he drafted both Brian Rust and Jake Gensel for the Penguins member. Gensel was a third round pick in the 2013 NHL draft. Hey, I think that worked out pretty well for the penguins, don't you say, don't you think? So I will say for the misses that he had, he really hit on a good chunk of players, namely Rust and Gensel. Another one I'll throw out there at you. 2006 third round.
Starting point is 00:18:22 Do you guys remember Brian Straight went on to play for the New York Islanders? Six picks later, Brad Marchand was taken. That would have been something seeing Brad Marchand in a Pittsburgh penguin's uniform, considering everything he has done to torment the penguins ever since becoming drafted by the Boston Bruins. But that's also one to look back on a little bit as well. Yeah. I mean, and obviously he's known for being a rat, but you look at his career numbers. This dude is a great, great player. Yes. A little 1,029 games, 401 goals, 929 points. He is, yeah, he's an agitator. He's a rat. love to hate him, but dude, he can play.
Starting point is 00:19:06 And this is the last one that I'll bring up before we go to break, and it's the 2007 draft. First round, 20th overall, they take Angelo Esposito. Esposito never plays in the National Hockey League. And here's, again, like I said, here's the trend. There's going to be some names of guys who ended up becoming Penguins and cover your eyes on this one, Penguins fans because there were a lot of players on the board that they end up missing. They miss on David Perron, who ultimately at one point becomes a penguin, Max Patcheretti, and P.K. Suban.
Starting point is 00:19:47 Yeah, that's a good one too. You know, P.K. obviously was great with Montreal, really great with Nashville. It went down a little bit when he got to the Devils. But, you know, when he was in his prime, I think there weren't five better defensemen in the league. When he was in the peak of his career, he was awesome to. watch, excuse me, especially in the offensive zone. But, yeah, these are all really good. And these are just a taste of some of the, I guess,
Starting point is 00:20:11 misses, if you want to call them throughout the Crosby, Malkin-Latang era. There's plenty others that we could get into at some point. We might have to do a part two, I think, at some point later on this off-season. But this was just a nice taste of some of the misses that the penguins had during the height of the Crosby-Malkin-Latang era. Yeah, and you look at their draft history. in this era.
Starting point is 00:20:34 And they did fairly well under both Shiro and Rutherford at getting later round gems, guys who you didn't think about. Like you brought up Gensel, I brought up Rust, two guys who have had fruitful, very successful NHL careers. But you look at those earlier rounds and they left a lot of serious talent. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:54 On the board that they could have taken. And I also know that one of the funny things about, and I remember saying this at the time, especially when he was dismissed. Shiro for some reason did not like players who weren't North American. And you look at it both drafting and acquisition, whether it was trades or signings, so many of the players he signed or traded for, American or Canadian. And it's great that he loved North American hockey, but there were so many players available from across the pond that for whatever reason, he just did not have any.
Starting point is 00:21:32 interest in acquiring. So I think you're right. We will have to probably do a part two on this this summer just to look back at some of the misses. I'll give you one more to 2012 in initial draft. Penguins take Derek Pooleyant. Guess who went three picks later? Philip Foresberg. Yep. I was at that draft. I was looking at the available first round talent. And as picks kept coming off the board and the penguins got closer, I was like, oh my God, they're going to take Philip Foresberg. They're going to take Philip Forsberg. This is huge. This is huge. And they don't. And it crushed me. But that'll do it for this second segment. When we return, there are some news and notes from the Penguins world today that we will go over very quickly to end the show. But before we do that,
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Starting point is 00:23:40 So take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-O-N-HL for $20. off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed welcome back to the thursday edition of the locked on penguins podcast i'm patrick damp joined as always by hunter hoodies thank you as always for joining us on the locked on penguins podcast and there are some news and notes out of the penguins world today we're going to start with the absolute most important news
Starting point is 00:24:24 out of the Penguins land today. And if you are a season ticket holder, mini plan holder, or just somebody who goes to a couple games per year, our long national nightmare has come to an end. The RC Cola era at PPG Paints Arena is over, as the team has announced that Coca-Cola is now the official in arena beverage provider of PPG Paints Arena. It's a multi-year deal.
Starting point is 00:24:49 That means you're going to be able to get Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Sprite, Seagrams, and others. inside the arena and boy oh boy this is just just so long overdue pat as the kids like to say that's a w riz in the chat right there can we get some ws in the chat absolutely man this is the best move of the off season coke is so much better than pepsi argue with a wall if you disagree people i'm sorry i've seen takes about dr pepper nope get out of here too i'm not a big dr pepper fan co i will say this though I agree with you on the whole. Coke is better than Pepsi,
Starting point is 00:25:24 but I do love me a wild cherry Pepsi from time to time. I don't like cherry Pepsi. I don't really like cherry Coke either. I just like, you know, a regular good old fashioned Coke. Best move of the off season. Thank you to the Penguins for doing this.
Starting point is 00:25:38 Yes. I'm big fan of this. And, uh, I mean, that's really only place to leave it. Finally, we can get a good Coca-Cola at a penguin's game because,
Starting point is 00:25:46 let's be real here. R.C. Cola stinks. But moving right along here. some news from the Penguins Hockey Operation Staff today from Matt Vensel of the PG. Long time Penguins athletic trainer Chris Stewart has left the team after 29 years on the job. He basically said he wants to step away from the grind. They're going to hire a new athletic trainer. And I actually learned this today because I obviously, you know,
Starting point is 00:26:15 Chris Stewart became just one of those great side characters in the Penguins land because I love the video from the bench of the 2017 Stanley Cup where they're all going crazy. And he is maybe going the most crazy. Like he's pumping his fist and going nuts. He's grabbing the glass behind Sullivan and freaking out. But the one thing I didn't know, because he's known mostly for spending time with the Johnstown chiefs in the ECHL. He's in the Cambria County Hall of Fame. Did not know he joined the Penguins in 0607.
Starting point is 00:26:51 after he won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes. So very cool little nugget. I'm hoping all the best for him. He has had his hands full because we know how injury plagued this franchise has been pretty much since Crosby got into the league. Oh, 100%. I mean, he probably deserves a much needed break, considering how banged up this team has been so many years during the Crosby,
Starting point is 00:27:17 Malkin-Littang era. But his bromance also with Evgeny, Malkin was awesome to see on the ice. I'm going to miss seeing that, especially during warmups. Gino would always joke around with him overall. So that's a huge, you know,
Starting point is 00:27:32 a little bit. That's a huge underrated part of, of Gennie Malkin as a penguin. The staff, the staffers, he has always had fun relationships with. Like, you remember when Dana Hinesy was the penguin's equipment manager,
Starting point is 00:27:47 and the penguins were still, I don't know if they still do it. because I haven't really looked, but for a while they did their 24-7 spinoff in the room. And the 2014 Olympics, him and Sid, are getting ready to leave. And they're putting all the gear together.
Starting point is 00:28:03 And they're looking, Sid's gears all packed up. They're packing up Gino's gear. And Gino's like, Dana, where's my flag? You put all this Canada stuff on Crosby's stuff. Where's my flag?
Starting point is 00:28:13 What are you doing? So always fun to see the relationships that have gotten Malkin has with the staff. Lastly, and certainly not leastly, the last bit of news we'll cover here real quick before we call it a show. Penguins announced yesterday that they have signed 2024, 46th overall pick, Tanner Howl to his three-year entry-level deal. He is the captain of the Regina Pats, led the team in games played with 68, 28 goals,
Starting point is 00:28:42 49 assists, 77 points. You are a huge fan of this kid, I am too. So really cool to see them get him locked up. And just one quick note about that for everybody asking, no, this deal does not kick in immediately. It's a typical deal for somebody who is going to have to go back to juniors. If he plays more than nine games at the NHL level in a season, then his ELC kicks in.
Starting point is 00:29:08 They burn a year of it, even if they send him back. So just something to keep in mind when this season gets going. Right. He's still only 18 years old right now. he'll be 19 on November 28th of this year. So he has to go back to junior no matter what if he doesn't make the Penguins, which again, we don't expect him to.
Starting point is 00:29:24 Yeah, it was great in the WHL this past season, 28 goals, 77 points in 68 games, has a wicked release, plays that ratty style that a lot of fans are going to love. I know I've said that so many times on recent episodes of this show. If he pans out, he will be a fan favorite very quickly. Good to see him sign that ELC. He's the first one of this draft class to sign it. And now all eyes are on some of the,
Starting point is 00:29:46 other picks from the class year of Harrison Brunick, you know, will he sign his ELC? We also have to see, well, Murashov signed his ELC at some point. So it's going to be a fascinating summer to see who else signs the ELC this year outside of Tanner Howe. Yeah, very curious to see especially what happens with Murashav. I'm very excited to have him in the system. We'll see if he decides to come over or stay in Russia. But we'll find that out later this summer. And of course, you know, once we know, we'll cover it.
Starting point is 00:30:16 here on Locked on Penguins. But for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp, that is going to do it for today's episode. We thank you, as always, for tuning in and making us part of your daily routine. But 400 Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thanks, as always for tuning in. We'll be back with a brand new episode tomorrow on Friday to close out the week, and we will talk to you then.

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