Shaun Newman Podcast - #877 - Brother’s Roundtable

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

The Brothers are back again to discuss all things NHL.To watch the Full Cornerstone Forum: https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastGet your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionWebsite: www.BowValleycu.comEmail: [e-mail] Use the code “SNP” on all ordersProphet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: [e-mail]

This is Viva Fry. I'm Dr. Peter McCullough. This is Tom Lomago. This is Chuck Pradnik. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is J.P. Sears. Hi, this is Frank Paredi.

This is Tammy Peterson. This is Danielle Smith. This is James Lindsay. Hey, this is Brett Kessel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Thursday. Well, this is a first. We got the first ever video Brothers Roundtable.

I thought I'd release it on an actual day this time around, as it is the final one of the season and before we get there well how about we talk about the number of ounces of silver need to buy an ounce of gold at 30 year highs well silver is now bargain price when compared to gold it's a perfect time to protect a portion of your savings with silver and silver gold bowl has a wide variety of best value silver for every budget simply text or email graham for details whether your season investor or new to precious metals graham will work with you to answer all your questions and recommend the best products to meet your investing goals all you got to do is go down the show notes text them or email them for details about any few people you know you to answer you

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and our community, I might add. So look to ignite distribution out of Wainwright, Alberta. Substack, free to subscribe to. It is a way to get a little behind the scenes. I just did a live a couple days ago for paid subscribers, so a little behind the scenes of what's going on with the podcast and this lead-up here as we get ready to head off on holidays with the family

and just some, you know, some different things going on in the background that you wouldn't be privy to on this side of things. So if you're interested in that, head over to Substack. It's all down the show notes, how to get there. The new podcast studio coming here in 2025,

we've got a legacy, a value for value while being built, and I want your name on it or your company's name on it. And so we're looking actively for partners or participants or people who believe in what the show represents, maybe and if you want to be a part of that build there's still time to you know to offer skills

labor materials money and and beyond that wall just shoot me a text and i can give you some more details uh you know there's been more and more names uh being added actually as i say this i can see hear kevin in my head he's like it'd be nice to hear some of the new people that have that have been on and the latest is patrick and karen i hope i'm saying this right houstice and uh shout out to them They e-transferred some money for the studio, and obviously to get their names on the wall. Leifembecky Anderson, Dexter Nelson, Earl Wally, Seth Bloom, Ben Trudeau, Scott and Atlanta Roetton, Nancy Fleming, Don Valiant,

Morley Maldoon, Grant Milner, Tom Icurt, Kevin Damon, Ralph Damon, Lewis Stang, Scott Petrie, Kirby Cohen, Dallas Zimmer, Robert Villeneu, Warawa. So there you go. And then there was some people that came out to lend a hand. a few, you know, like my brother Harley and his son Mason actually and his daughter Ayla, Ken Rutherford and Theo Rutherford, Joe Rutherford, Jonas Hagel, and the list just goes on and on and on. So there's lots of people, you know, Cam Grabowski and Jim Henderson came out when we were cutting trees and just landed, you know, about four hours of work, honestly,

but it was greatly appreciated. So there's lots of different ways to be a part of the new studio and if any of that speaks to you shoot me a text we'll see what the next uh looks like august we're going to have uh another um cleanup of the yard so to speak you know we had some problems with some trees we were worried about so we we chopped down some trees that's a way to give an afternoon away and and come lend some hand or lend a hand sorry uh to part of that built so if any of that helps you out shoot me a text I can give you more details if you're listening or watching on Spotify Apple YouTube rumble make sure to subscribe on X, hit the retweet button.

Leave a review and share with a friend. Now, let's get on to that tale of the tape. We are four brothers spread over 10 years. Lifelong Euler fans. Far from experts, but we'll argue like we are. The Golden Child, the bird man, the engineer, and the big man. Another Brothers Roundtable. So buckle up. Here we go.

Okay, well, welcome to the Shondingwood podcast. This is the Brothers Roundtable. Carry on. So, if you're the, If you're the most powerful person in the entire world, right? And there's arguments that there's backroom deals and I've heard Lomongo and everybody else, right? At some point, you got to draw a line in the sand, just make a stand to make sure everybody knows that you've got balls and that you're the most powerful person and the strongest person in the world? So maybe, but what came out since we talked this afternoon was Trump came out and said, this was, this was 12 days war, there's now a ceasefire, peaceful reign after this, good to go. So that's what Trump came out and said.

I just read a couple months ago that Israel's launching missiles towards Iran and Iran is mobilizing. So what is the point of saying that? It's just to say that the states is done? I guess so. I don't know. See, here's the thing that everyone thinks about Trump is that he's either an idiot or he's brilliant. And I look at it and go, maybe he's just a man and he's not near skilled, like he's not an idiot. but he's not near as skilled as what some people think he is right he's really good

of promoting himself and he may be almost 80 years old well that's another part of it as well right like like maybe it's maybe he's not as brilliant as everyone thinks he is and then he makes mistakes along the way because he's just a man on the round table here talking about the others I don't know I bet you'd overtake the conversation right well I don't know I think we'd push back pretty hard yeah maybe that's your invite Donald Trump can you imagine Donald Trump on a brother's round table talking sports You know who we should get on? Don Cherry.

Don Cherry. You know what? I have a throwback. So in July, I was actually just telling a substack about it that, and I've been saying it on the podcast now all week and I'll reiterate it here that in July, I slow down, right? So I go Monday, Wednesday's new episodes and no Tuesday for the month of July. And then it's going to be a throwback Thursday this year. So the first throwback I'm doing is Don Cherry.

I just listened to it. It was pretty cool. Like, pretty surreal moment to have him. on I did via Skype phone I had I had to record I had to figure out how I was going to record a phone call and I'm and I'm like oh my god I okay don't bungle this you can figure it out so I had him call Skype and I recorded through Skype back then and it's still surreal to hear him say well he brings I mentioned Harley right at the start and he brings up Harley like three or four times I just chuckle about that because back then Harley would call me pretty much every day to it to go through the episode I'd listen to

Now he can't even show up to a round table. Yeah. In fairness, we've recorded this morning. I had some great points, too. Like, I'm just not going to be near as good as. I was on point as well. Yeah, I was too. Yeah, you know, and I won a silver coin.

Actually, I won six silver coins in that episode. Anyways, uh, the... Oh, speaking of which. Did you guys hear about Don Cherry? He actually did his last podcast today and signed off. Well, I'd been in touch with his team and they told me they, he was, because people have been asking me to bring Don Cherry on. It'd be amazing to get him back on.

And so I'd reached out, and they just said he's no longer doing a podcast. Well, he's 91, right? Yeah. Yeah. He signed off from his own podcast today. He's not going to do anymore. That's going to be a tough day. Yeah.

Yeah, I would think so. Yeah. Speaking of silver coins, we give out a silver coin every time somebody's in studio, and with the Brothers Roundtable, much to the chagrin of Nick from Silver Gold Ball, because he's like, I don't know. Do I want to sit there and listen to you, Yahoo's talk, Oilers for two months? But, hey, Silver Gold Bowl. You know, Nick.

Silver coin to Jay. If Calgary made the playoffs, we might actually have to talk about them. This is true. This is true. You know, a couple thoughts. So I won two silver dollars, silver coins. And I tied for first and the other two. I am.

Practically four for four. Practically four for four, he says, on the old silver coat, except you're not. All right. You got two. I got two stolen away from me. I will say this about the flames is we could dedicate, you know, a minute. Hey? Like, we could dedicate a minute, minute and a half to the flames, go over quickly what their strategy is.

I'll tell you, I was thinking about it on the way over. The Calgary Flames, they have maybe the best young goalie coming up. Great. And Dustin Wolf? And Dustin Wolf. Right? Like, he may be the next guy that's top 10 goaltender league. Like, he looked really good last year.

So if you build from the net out, what's your next guy? A defenseman. Who's the best defenseman available in the UFA trade? Eckblad. Why wouldn't the flames go after Eckblatt? Can you imagine putting Eckblad in the middle of that lineup? It would look pretty good. There's going to be a lot of teams in on Actblad.

Here's a question. Who's going to get chased harder from that Florida lineup? Eckblad or Sam Bennett? Sam Bennett or Marshawn. Not Marshaen. Not Marsha. So Bennett and Eckblatt are in the prime of their careers. Yeah.

Just won two Stanley Cups. And Sam Bennett was the Konsmite winner. That's right. So who's, like, are the team's going to chase how? Or is it going to be the same? I guess, I guess a little bit depends on which team, right? I mean, if you got a team with two or three, like, if you look at Dallas, I'm going after Bennett.

Yes. Because, I mean, their defense is pretty legit. But you got to, you got to lean. it's harder to find good defenseman top pair of defensemen isn't it so isn't heckblad a legit top pair of defense he's a rare commodity right like I think defensemen are defensemen he should he should have more suitors immediately it doesn't mean that people won't go after Sam Bennett which team isn't going after heckblatt you know and apologies with maybe the Dallas stars but like which team isn't like I would expect 25 teams be in

an egg blood when you like if I'm the GM of the oilers the Seattle Crackin the Vancouver Canucks the New York Islanders pick your poison are you not at at least phoning the agent saying, what's he looking for? If we're looking historically to Eckblad, who's he comparable to when it comes to like, how good is he? Like, if we're taught, are we talking Chris Prong again or not quite to that level? You know, he might be similar to, he might be, that might be not a bad comparison. The knock on Eckblad so far in his career is he hasn't been healthy.

Injuries. That's been the big knock. But he is miserable and he is a big man. He's got some offense. Right? Very Chris Pronger-like in a lot of them. The only reason I ask that is because Chris Pronger joined the Oilers and they went through the cup final. Yeah.

And then they got rid of them and they didn't make the playoffs the next year. So if you look at Ekblad over his career with the Florida Panthers, since 2014-15, he's played 81 games three times. 81, 82, and he had a 71, everything else is sub-and-a-78, I should say. but his last couple years, 56, 51, 71, 61, 35, 67. He's starting to get my drift. He's not, like, and that's the knock. But at the same time, when you look at, so if we go to the Oilers, you plug him in the lineup for 60 games during the regular season.

If you can have him there for the playoffs, I think he's a game change. How much is he going to get? Ten? Is he a 10 million? If Bush is going to get 9.5.10, Eckblad's getting 10, isn't he? I think he is because. there's so many teams out there that could legitimately use that guy. And even guys that are looking to, like, if you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, could you use that

what? Yes. Right? If you're in New York Rangers, could you use them? Well, the answer is yes. If you're the Winnipeg Jets, could you use that blood? So who's going to be the highest bidder? Now, it's probably going to come down to two, probably three things.

One, it's got to be a team that can win because he's not going to go from winning two cups to some, you know, to the Seattle. Blackhawks or... No, to the Seattle Cracket. Fair. Second, it's got to be money, right? And then the third thing is, um, is, does he have a preference on divisions or anything like that?

Like, does it matter? Does it matter from Florida at Amminton? Yeah. That does matter. Yeah. Right? That'd be a tough pill to swallow. Right.

So how much has Bennett getting in? I still... Is he getting 10? Okay. Well, if I'm the Emmetton owners, I'm not paying Ben at 10. I'm not. But will someone pay him? 10. Maybe, maybe, maybe again, the Toronto Maple Leafs. I don't know. I mean, the Toronto Maple Leafs

in reality could sit there and go, we are dropping $11 million centerment and go pick up Bennett for 10 million. We think we're a step ahead in the playoffs and we saved a million bucks. Sam Bennett would actually look nice in a Toronto Maple Leafs uniform. He's exactly the guy they need. Exactly. So, so Eckblatt and Bennett and Marchand all come out and they all want to roll it back again and I don't blame him. And if I'm Florida, I'm taking a shot at it. And Florida has an advantage because they don't have the income tax, but there's going to be some suitors there. And even for Brad Marshall, see, I think, you know, obviously, I'm glad we've talked about a ton

for the Oilers, which would be your first choice, which we just said is probably the marquee guy. But if you don't get him, Marshan will look nice in other colors. How much is Marshaun going for, though? He can't be going for that much? Can he? Can he go for a lot on a short-term deal? Like, would some team give him $8 million a year for two years or $7 million for three years?

Would you give, would you give Marchand? Eight mil. You just lit it up in the playoffs. I know, but you don't buy it the high dust. No, no, I realize that, but you've got 32 teams. But the Hamilton orders, so let's pick on the Emmettin' dollars for a second. They are win-now mode right now, right? So if they could convince Marchand to come for eight mil in a year, just for argument's sake right now,

which is Jeff Skinner and Evander Kane combined, okay, so now you got Marchand in the lineup for two years. Do they take that plunge? and he comes in next year he gets to play with Dry Seidel or McDavid so does he come in next year score 30 and 30 for 60 points and now you got him for the playoffs

I don't know or do you want to go get who's all the other guys out there right? Do you want to pay Tavares 8 million or do you want to play Marshaun 8 million do you want to go pay Patrick Kane 8 million you want to play Marshaun 8 million

which guy is the guy that you want game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs well defenseman by far as Zach Vlad forward, it's by far Bennett. Those are your two marquee guys. And your Marshan's kind of that that guy that I think could help

that's underneath them two guys. That's right. Well, he got hid by the top lines of Florida and played exceptionally well on Florida's third line, correct? Yep. But, I mean, there was games. They drove that series.

Well, I tell you what, ham turning, which defense when you turn inside out? Echholm. Wallman? Wallman and then Echholm. And then Echholm. That's right.

like it wasn't just him you know making a pass because he had good linemates playing against the underbelly of the oilers no he like beat beat walman one-on-one one-on-one and buried and then he beat echo one-on-one and buried yeah those are no two slight defensemen if you go if you go back okay so we already hash it out this morning but of course none of that recorded so we'll have and we sounded so yeah so smart um if you go back to um the stanling cup finals right we have hadn't done an episode on the Brothers Roundtable for roughly two weeks, I think, right? We missed pretty much the entire Stanley Cup finals. And if you go back, when we did our final one, it was tied. It was one-nothing Emmington. That's correct. Because you said Florida was going to win the next two.

That's correct. And you predicted the fourth win, too, and you predicted the fourth win too, and you were patting yourself on the back saying the others are going to come back and then you were a rock. Right? So let's put that in there, too, Jack. You know? What did you think of the Stanley Cup finals? Well, I thought it was really good. Three of the games went to overtime.

But I think Florida was an amazing team. Like they walked all through the East and beat the Oilers in six, and they were the better team by far in the last couple of games. Simple as that. I thought it all started from July 1st last year, which was the Oilers went out and spent $7 million on Arvinson and Skinner, who throughout the playoffs were healthy scratches and fourth line players. And you're trying to win now and you're spending $7 million on that.

They could have spent $4 million on Broberg and Holloway and have both them guys in the lineup and still had $3 million to spare. And so I think they wrecked it right at the start, which we had discussed earlier day was not Bowman, but that was Jeff Jackson that did that. Yeah, that wasn't Bowman. So they can't make the same mistake. If you can get Ekblad or you can get Marchan or Bennett or maybe even Tavar, she could convince me of is that third line center or second line center of dry saddle plays with

mcdavit but there's a lot of guys there that are nice players and one of the guys i brought up was majiapani right they're talking about him going to winnipeg and i'm going okay great like is he going to move the needle for winnipeg are they going to pick him up and they go oh now now we're winning the cup as the oilers am i at all word and mind you impone is in winnipeg when you play him so i mean if i'm the oilers i want to sit back and go who do we have that we want to keep which we talked about let's resign bouchard Let's just re-sign them. You run it back with the same defense and possibly the same going unless you can really find an upgrade.

He's an RFA, right? So you don't have to make a big splash and sign him for eight years. You could sign him for a bridge deal, correct? That's right. But I was reading today, they think that if he went to, what do they call it when they... Arbitration? That he would get 10 million. So you're kind of stuck.

So what's he going to sign for? a short-term deal. Two years, three years of what? Eight, nine, ten million? Like, you're almost better to sign them ten times eight and carry on with your life. You lock them in. You got Bouchard, you got Ekholm, you got Nurse, you got Walman. If you can get Akblad, then we talked about maybe you're trading Ekholm or Darnel

Nurse. Darnel Nurse. Right? And everybody's going to go Ekholm, but he's 35 years old, one year left. With injuries starting to show. If you could replace him with Eckblad, who won the cup the last two years, you probably would. I'm not saying any of this is possible. but if I'm the Oilers, I'm going to go try and get Ekblad.

And if I happen to land them, then I'm going to deal with the problem. Well, and the other thing we talked about was Arvetson, you got to move. Got to move Arvetson. You need the cab space. You got to move of And then a van der Kaine, I agree. I just think there's something wrong there. And does he bring intangible as he does. You, like, what is with at the end of the series how we, like just there's things that always pop up around him.

And I don't know if him in the room always get along like him. And, you know, you watch on the bed sometimes. That hasn't been the case anywhere else has. Is it? With Van der Kaine? Yeah, no. Not at all. What were you talking?

End of the series, what? Hmm. You said end of the series watching Evander Kaine. Well, he didn't shake hands or something at the lineup at the end of the series? He didn't shake hands? You know what?

I'm not sure about that. Van der Kaine reminds me of... He might be starting a big old rumor. Vander Kaine reminds me that guy who played for the Bulls a little bit. Dennis Rodman? Dedmus Rodman. Just a little bit.

How it's all about Evander Kane all the time. So now you're saying. they should keep them because the Bulls won six championships. Yeah, but what Rodman was was a defensive workhorse and Evander Kane is a defensive liability. That's his biggest dog. I just think at five, what is he, five point two-ish, something like that.

Like that's, you attack on him and Arvinson, now you already got a $9 million player. Yeah. No, I'm good with moving both of them quite honest. And honestly, I'm going to go out there and I'm really, really going to see who's available, especially with Ekblad, Marshan, and Bennett. That's the three or one. Here's some other names. But just here's the top 10 of the top UFAs.

Mitch Marner. Do you want Mitch Marner? No. He's a $12 million dollar guy? 12 million dollar guy probably. No, carry on. Okay. John Tveras.

Do you want Johnny T. At 34 years old? The problem is you're going to have to sign him too many years. Okay. Then you got Nikolai Eilers? I don't want Eilers. He is, he's injury prone for. me and he's exactly what we're trying to get away from we already have that high-end talent

with nougain hopkins and mc david and dry set on them guys we're looking for number number four sam bennett which we've talked extensively about yeah number five is patrick kane at 36 deadline acquisition what do you need another guy like is there power play the problem here i'm just saying this is the guys that that's what i'm saying mason marchman was just traded to the crackin for a third and a fourth, he's 6-5, scores 15 to 20 goals a year, probably would score 30 playing with with Dry Sleadle-Madled on McDavid. Sure. That's the guy you want.

Yeah, yeah. Like, in my mind, do you need another power play specialist? No, you already got a great power play. And if you feel like you do, then get him at the trade deadline. Brock Besser at 27 years old. No, there's been way too much history there in Vancouver. I don't know what's going on with them guys. Aaron Neckblad's number 7.

Jonathan Druan is number 8. Not a chance. Claude Drew at 37, not a chance. No. And number 10 they have on here is Mikkel Granlin. Number 11 would be Brad Marshand. Okay. How Marchand is a notch below ground one. But anyways. Wow. And Ekblad's not number seven.

So in our thing, Ekblad's number one. And Mitch Marner, you know, I understand why Mitch Martin is in the top five. I do. So Ekblad, Marner, Bennett, for sure, three of my top five. Yes. Ivan Proverov is out there, defenseman. Yeah, he's an interesting defenseman. He kind of just fell off the map. Well, he didn't fall off the map. What happened was all the stuff with pride, right? he was in Philly and all that stuff came out because of his history. He was right in the time. There was a whole bunch of them. There was the goalie, and I'm forgetting.

So is he still a good defenseman? I don't see why not. Like, he's a legit top four guy. Proveroff? Yeah. How old is he? He is 28. You know, played 82 games last season, 33 points.

What was this plus minus? Oh, wow. Give me a second. You brought this up earlier, and actually more I think about it, the more I like it. And you brought up Eckblad as being the, replacement for him, but at where Ekholm is at and his injury issues, trading him now and signing a defenseman to replace him who's 28, for example, might be a, like, if you could, you can make the money work, you probably get something back in return for Ekholm, and you're

better off in the end. I don't know if they'll do it. No, because they like Ekholm a lot. And I do, and I like Ekholm. Here's the thing. I do like, Ivan, okay, Ivan Proveroff. He played for Philly for all those years. His last year with Philly was minus 17.

Then he got traded. He went to Columbus. He was minus 11 his first year. And last year he was plus 11, 33 points. Seven goals, 26 assists, played all 82 games. Like he'd be almost like another wallman. You know what I mean? You'd fit him in.

Everybody's kind of forgot about him. And all of a sudden there's another top four guy. And he comes with a little bit of history where some clubs are going to be wearing. So I love Ackholm. Like, ever since I watched him play live, I'm like, that guy's a beast. But having said that, he's 35, one year left in his deal. If you could replace him with someone who's 28, because the problem is, are you resigning at home after this next year?

Right. Probably not. If you remove him or replace him with someone who's 28 on a deal that's similar or, you know, an Ackblad, it would be more. But someone who's throwing around $8 to $10 million like it doesn't matter, but the cap is going up exponentially right now. And what used to be a $6 million. dollar defenseman is probably an eight dollar million dollar defenseman and two years

going to be a 10 million dollar defenseman and so signing at blad for 10 million a year times eight seems like a lot right now but in a couple of years you're gonna look back and go we got bouchard and ekholm as our two staples on our defense black if you were to take them sorry ekblad sorry ekblad and bouchard is the two staples on defense yeah we're spending 20 million on the two of them but they're locked in for the next eight years like they are you're your legit top pair yeah i don't I don't mind that at all. Well, and I think everybody who is an Euler fan likes Echol.

He's ever since we got him, he's been phenomenal. But you just look at it and you go, he's getting older. At some point, you're going to either have to sign an older D-Men or trade him. And right now, you could probably get something back for him. Something back for him. And what were we saying earlier today? Oilers don't have a first or second this year? Nope.

So they got nothing in the hopper. Could you get a first for Ackholm at this point? For sure, a second. for sure you might get a first i mean if you're the tornell maple lease would you give the others the first so so the thing about it is the last time you can really capture an evaluate at at home is right now yes because you're not resigning them after this i don't think or unless he comes in at a lesser deal or whatever sure sure sure but at the same time you could lose them you keep back home because how he isn't trade nurse let's go the other side of things see because nurse now you're

almost going straight across for act blot because nurse is 9.2 and act why did you get for 10. We're using the 10 million dollars. Can you trade nurse? So you give up nurse and your last pick this year and you just don't make any picks. Right? They signed a guy where they they signed a guy of the Czech League and out of the

finish or the Swedish league. So they had a couple of guys coming in. They got Savoy down in the far. Some prospect management there. The one guy they traded for that remember they traded um who was the guy? they picked up that was in the first round and they traded Ottawa. They got that

was it Gervente back or whatever? And he just, he's going back to Europe. It's like they just have no prospects. Hey? It's win now and then forever we'll be in the dark for about 20 years again. Well, except we haven't won yet.

No. Right? Game seven, game six in the finals. Yeah. Yeah, we've come awfully close but you haven't won. Yeah. So you were talking about if you trade Henrik, Arvetson and Kane, you would then have $24 million. Now,

if you threw a nurse into that mix, okay, let's say you can get the deal done. How much of his contract you do with? Are you saying the whole thing? Let's say you got to eat two million. So let's say you're getting rid of seven. So now you're at 31 million.

So now you're walking in at 31 million. And you're going to sign a Nekblad for 10. Bouchard for 10? Well, yeah, but Bouchard for 10, yeah. So then that leaves you 11 million to fill out the rest of the line.

But your defense is rocked. solid. Everybody's going to point at goal tenning. Sure. And I read a thing today that there's a rumor now that they're going to try and make a deal with Vancouver for Thatcher Demko. But Demko's got all the injury problems. He does.

The problem is if you look at the UFA list, like it's not real deep on... Jake Allen is the number one. Jake Allen is the number one. And he is not nobody's number one. Hey? Well, I have agreed. You're not going out and getting a Jake yet. And to be fair to Jake, shout out to Jake here.

He's, what, 33? I don't. It's not, you know, it's not like he's a 26-year-old guy. This is the problem right now is there's no gold to have on the market. He's 34, sorry. Jake Allen, the number one goalie on the top of you is 34. So essentially what you're doing is looking trade deadline and hope to pick up someone. I think so.

I think you go back to what I always repeat it from a guy said three, four years ago, and Stauber show is your team good enough to make the playoffs. And it is, then you worry about it at the trade deadline. So Skinner and Bacard, Pickard. Pickard. Pickard. that guy. Picard, Captain Picard, yep.

Well, they're good enough to get, they're good enough to get him. Well, hell, I mean, Pickard in the playoffs was phenomenal until game five of the Stanley Cup finals. And in fairness, neither oil or goalie could stop them, right? Like, you look at the finals and you go, Florida was a great team. But, I mean, like, look at our noon hour game today, right? If you got goaltending that's lopsided, it can make any series seem like they weren't in it. But Brofsky was free. good in the entirety of the playoffs.

But against the Oilers, they couldn't figure them out. You realize Broborski has won two cups and two Veznes? Yeah. Like, he's Hall of Fame. Oh, yeah. Right? So, like, you know, like right now, you go, can the team get back to the playoffs? Well, if he kept it the identical, it should.

It was, it rolled through the West minus the L.A. Kings. The number one goalie, advanced stats in the playoffs, Burbrowski. Yeah. Yeah, he was, he was light, so. Yeah, I like the other's chance to make the playoffs a lot better than the Flames. That's for sure. But the Flames do have a nice young goal. If I was the GM there, you may have one of the best goalies in the league here within a year or two.

The others cannot say that. The others have the best two players in the league. So the Flames might go, we can take McDavid and Dry Saddle and you can have Wolf. This is true. This is true. Right? Like, you have, each team has their problems. The Florida Panthers right now, especially.

when they picked up Jones and Marchand just have zero problems. Like their team from top to bottom was ridiculous. They went with how they were and then added more of it. And the Oilers didn't add what they didn't, well, they didn't keep what they needed to keep because they should have kept Holloway and Broberg and they didn't keep them. And then at the deadline, they're trying to replace them. Florida had an amazing forecheck. They had an amazing forecheck.

They put so much pressure. Yeah, but yes. But I was watching and I'm like, okay, they did. the same thing every single time. They walked in on the left side, rim the puck around to the right side, and if the oiler defenseman, which it would have been difficult to pick

it up clean, they just kept doing it. If the oilers picked up clean, they'd stop them in the neutral zone, and they'd hammer it back in on the left-hand side. Not the right hand side, the left-hand side. You know what I was said to the older defense? I'd say, you know what? They want to do that every time. Instead of being the first guy of the puck, because it's getting rimmed hard,

be the second guy. so they're going to get it and you're going to hammer them and they're going to get it and you're going to hammer them and then I'm going to have my six foot forward defenseman running over Mershan and Luce-Turainen and Verhagi and Rinehart and let them have the puck first. They want to ring it as hard as they can. They've got to try and pick it up and you're going to run them through the boards.

But in fairness, right? We didn't change like nothing got changed. I want to try it for one game. After the second game, after the second game, like they're literally doing the same. thing over and over and over and over. If you're the goaltender, you almost could have just went and stood there, stopped it. Now that's where they dump it

in and score on the net. But like, is that because we always point to the LA Kings and they have Skinner's number. They know he can't do lateral movement, so they wrap the puck over and over and over again. And then we have to go to Campbell or now Pickard, right? Somebody who can move side

to side. So where's Mike Smith when you need him? Right. Somebody who can go and just stop the puck over and over again. Because the Oilers in the first couple rounds, what was amazing about it is they're their de-controlled the play so well. I was shocked at how well the Oilers D played. Florida figured that out. We're just going to hammer around the boards over and over and over again. We're going to stick to that game plan over and over until they stop us. Until they stop us. Yeah. Until they expose it. And they're putting so, like, here's the thing is

their forecheck was so good at getting pressure on the Oilers defensemen. And they did it once or twice, but if you can ever get past the pressure, you'll get odd man rushes, which is the that's hockey in a nutshell, right? If you're going to forecheck, if you can ever get the puck past the forecheck, you'll get odd man rushes. That's tail is oldest time in hockey, right? And they just couldn't quite do that. It's actually, I love in noon hour when Sean starts to rush a puck a lot, because then he starts

to get a little tired and you get the odd man rush. That's just true. I mean, there's a lot of good out there, right? But every once in a while. And when I'm on the ice, you also get odd man rushes because I'm not back checking. Well, there's a lot going on when I'm on the ice. you, Dally, and Dave today was rough to go against. I didn't think we even played that well.

That's because I had to go, we had to play on defense like ridiculously tough on that line. We did. But I mean, I ran poor Dally over like three times. I felt bad about the one. Literally took his feet out. Yeah, one out of the three. The other two, Dallie was running into me too. I did like taking Dust out there just at the poor blue line.

He wasn't very happy. I could tell when Dust isn't happy because he gets. all feisty. Jay does have a little bit of size advantage on me still. Yeah, I'm going to use it until I'm like 82. What is this success for the Oilers at the draft? Because the draft, a whole bunch of fireworks should happen, right? Like right now, is, like, if they do nothing, are you sitting there going, what are you doing?

Or are you like, no, that's okay? I think success for me has nothing to do with the draft this year for the Oilers. Maybe success. No, I'm going to say the success at the draft for the Oilers would be to unload a couple contracts. So if they come out and they traded Arvison for a fourth rounder and they came out and they traded Van der Kaine for a prospect or whatever and they were unable to unload them to get set up for the free agency. I think that would be success. Maybe the other success you're going to see here in the last week is they get Frederick under contract. They get Bouchard maybe done before July 1st. Like if they get Bouchard

done before July 1st, then they really know where they're at. They're trying to sign McDavid this like right away here too, aren't they? Right. Like that would be. the other one that would be successful. Connor, what do you want? I want 60 and a half? Okay, sit on here. That's how the deal's going to go. What's funny about is the top end guys.

I remember Grexie negotiating with McNeil in L.A., and McA. Knaw kept trying to pay him more, and Graski kept trying to take him down. With the best players in the league, like McDavid, he can write it whatever number he wants. Really? And you're going to pay it.

But he probably sits there and goes, yeah, but we need a team as well, so I can't take $25 million. So I'll take 15. I'll take 15. I got to be highest paid player in a league when I sign. Otherwise, I'll get total crap from the NHLPA. Yeah.

Wow. So I got to be... What is the highest right now? 14 and a half? 14 at dry saddle. Drysettle's got 14? So anybody are hiring a half? No, I don't think so.

What did Matthew sign at? You'd have to look. So I think that'd be success. Unload a couple of them contracts. Signed, Bouchard, Mead. If you could get McDavid locked in for another eight years, it really helps you in for agency, too. Now you go to Ekbaud and go,

yeah, we got McDavid and Dry Settle for the next seven years. Well, and here's the thing. 13.25. Is that what Matthew signed? Yeah, four year. Oh, because he didn't sign the full eight years. $53 million contract with a cap hit up 13.25. So you're right.

I didn't realize Dry Settle is going to be set to be the highest pay. And then if McDavid came in a million higher at 15, I think that's, right? If you sign McDavid right now and you sign Bushard, and then you sit there and go, okay, now what? So everyone goes, well, McDavid might want out, and I sit there and go, he's been in the Stanley Cup finals twice. In a row. His best friend, Drysiddle, who he loves playing with is on the Oilers, signed long term.

I just can't see him leaving because it's like if I go somewhere else, I don't even know if the team's going to be good. Well, I'm having a Nugent Hopkins through the other two of the four, five guys on the power play are signed their long term. So if they sign Bouchard, their long term. And I think he really gets along with Bouchard. Mm-hmm. Well, Blouchard's a nice player to play with. Us sitting in the stands,

we see the odd time where you wish he had a little more fire in his butt or he wouldn't put it up the middle once in a while. But, I mean, he makes a lot of great outlet passes. And if you're McDavid and Drysaitle, that's what you're looking for. He thinks the game well.

I've been about as hard on Bouchard as anyone. I thought he was fantastic in the playoffs. Against Florida, did he have some, but we just talked about Walman and Eckholm getting walked. And they're not, like, at home's not supposed to get walked by anyone and i thought bouchard i was faster than i thought i've

never seen him skate that hard like i'm like he went to a different level in the playoffs yeah i thought so absolutely right i'm watching them i'm going to go so yeah there's a success bouchard's signed kane and arvotsen are traded let's see what we got is there is there any other team you're watching this off season that you think you know like florida probably be won are they going to get bennett ecblad marshand is there any way that you know or is there i'm interested in what Toronto's going to do now. I agree. I think Toronto's, because Toronto really is not that far away.

You lost us seven and, uh, to the eventual, eventual champions. Like they're not that far off. So it looks like they're letting Marner walk. Does Tavares come back for a team sweet deal of six million year or something? Who are they replacing Marner with? And is Marner the guy they need to replace or are they going hard after a guy like Eklap? Are they going hard after a guy like Bennett?

Right. Yeah. I've heard lots of about them going to after Marchand. And I'm like, actually, Bennett's the guy they want, not Marcian. I know.

I think they want Marciaan because Marciaan is the leaf killer. Yeah. But the truth of the matter is Bennett's the young one who can be there for eight years. Yeah. And when did Bennett grow up?

He's Ontario, isn't he? So he must have been a Leaves fan growing up, right? I'm just, just off top of my head. I mean, he could have been Cuba for all in home. That's the thing that the Leafs always have going for them

is most of the kids who grew up in Ontario, release fans. Yeah. So you can actually like John Tvers. Yeah. Sam Bennett is? Holland Landing East Gwillenbury?

Where the heck is that? Oh, over there. You got the right Sam Bennett. Regional municipality of York in south central Ontario. Do I got the right Sam Bennett? Yeah, I got the right Sam Bennett. I don't know. Jackass.

So he's from York, Ontario. Is that what you're trying to tell us right now? Basically, they had to go a haul and landing. What is going on? Yeah, so in Ontario, boy. Yep. Right? Like, who knows?

Now, so we've acted like somebody else is going to be able to resign these guys. If you're Bennett, Marshan, especially if you're Benin-Eckblad. You want to stay in Florida. You would do, don't you? Yeah. Like, if I'm Bennett right now, I'm going, you know, Leaves are going to offer me 10. Would I stay in Florida for eight? I probably would.

Yeah. Give me 8 by 8, $64 million. I can survive. the rest of my life. Yeah. And who knows? Let's go see if we can make history and win three cups in Rome become a dynasty. Like that's what's on my mind.

The first dynasty in the last 40 years. Since the Oilers. Yeah. Their currents, we've been talking a lot about the Oilers in their cap space. They have 19 million current cap. The problem is they've got. Florida. Yeah, they got three big boys.

And Bennett. Yeah. Never mind. So another team on my mind, not that I care about them where I do or don't, but the Rangers absolutely laid an egg last year. They were supposed to be one of the top teams in the league and were terrible. So what do they do? They already traded Crider to Anaheim.

Like, is it kind of, are they going to dismantle a little bit, or are they going to be able to do it on the fly and be right back in the playoffs next year? And let's be honest, if you're looking at the Rangers, what's one of their problems? Probably a lack of a Bennett and Marchand and Ekblad on that team too. They're pretty soft. Zibinajad, Panarin, Fox. I mean, their top guys are not exactly, you know, Lafranier is a nice hardworking kid from Quebec, right?

You know? So you're saying Sam Bennett to the Rangers. I'm just saying it. You go back to, you go back to Ekblad and you're like, oh, any team should be in on them. But Sam Bennett's the same way.

Yes. Right? Those are the top two in my mind. What about Carolina Hurricanes? Where are you at with that team right now? Like, they must be just thoroughly disgusted. Well, they've made the conference final. Was it three times in the last six years or something?

Like, so what do you do there? I think it's more than that. Oh, no. might be they need a goaltender they've made it they've met it past the first round like six times in six years yeah but but can't get over the hunt so what are you doing there well I don't know trading for Patrick Lainey well they took their shot with uh with uh guy from Dallas now Colorado uh Ratinan Rantan Rantin they had Rattanin they took their shot and Randon didn't want to stay there so you go well who who are you bringing in there oh well someone like Bennett would

how about how about Patrick Marner up Mitch Marner Mitch Martin. They're talking Mitch Martyr to Vegas. To Vegas. Yeah. Peter Angel was going on LTIR. Of course he is. 8.8 million a year.

Yeah, of course he is. For how long until the playoffs start? They said they figured about April 16th or something, which. Pulling the old Vegas, right? Well, the others did do that with Vander Cain. Tampa Bay's done it quite well, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kane showing up on first game.

If you're Tampa Bay are you running it back? What are you doing there? I don't know. Well, see, Tampa Bay, I could actually see where they would be in the market. I mean, again, anybody wants Ben and necklap, but I could see where Tampa Bay goes out and says, you know what, we're going to add a little Patty King. We're just going to throw a little more depth in our top six. We've got some really talented guys, and this allows us to have two lines that can score.

Is Patrick King going to get you by Florida? Who's going to get Tampa Bay by Florida? I don't know. That's the problem right now. All right. Maybe you just get a guy to run over Bobrowski. There's been Dumber things said.

Like, where's Nick Kiprios to run him over? Like, really? Hey, that guy turned it into a career.

I know. Hey? We were all, he's still got a career out of it because he's on the freaking air. That's what I mean.

We were all waiting for Corey Perry to run Bobarovsky over, weren't we? Yeah. Right? Sam Bennett did it to, or Yanmark or,

you know what? A band or cane? Just know your role. If you're playing on the fourth line, there might come, there might come a time, there might come a time, there might come a hole,

and just tripping the slot. Well, you might have to be there. And if someone happens to push you like they did Bennett in the first game or second game, whatever that was, then you just fall in your forearm first. And second game. Right? That's right.

Stick first into the throat. I mean, who's going to notice? On a completely different note, they were talking about oil going with everything going on in the Middle East, up to $100. Do you think that's low, high? Do you think? So here's the thing is everyone keeps talking about it.

You know, if bombs fell and, you know, straights got closed and all the rest of it. But you know what oil is doing right now? Same thing has been doing for months. Maybe the last year. It has not moved. It feels like a different industry than it used to. It feels like with so many

just technological advances and with everything going on, it just doesn't feel like we have that same up and down anymore. You know what's funny is there's so much smoke when it comes to what's going on in the world. And it's almost like no one believes any of it. And it all is sitting right there, but it's kind of not, and no one's sure what to believe anymore.

So did they actually bomb it? I ran, or is that just the media? Well, no, they did. And there was a, I don't know. Was it AI? Maybe it's like landing on the moon. Maybe it's AI. But like there's a little blip of oil going up, and then it came back down and sitting where it's at.

We all carry on. Dust makes millions. Jay tries to survive. Okay, one final question, because we were having this argument, Jay wasn't a part of it. And I was almost, I don't. almost pissed myself laughing at Dustin and Harley going back and forth. Is it easier to hide players in hockey or baseball? I think, okay, so are we talking at the House League levels at Pee-wee, or sorry, U-11 for all you?

You-13. U-13, I went too. Or are we talking about at the pro ranks? Because it makes difference. But here's why. One of the reasons it's hard to hide a guy in the house is because everybody squawks. So you can't just hide, you got to play them, right? You got to play them.

In the pro levels, you can hide a guy in the fourth line in hockey because he sees three minutes a game and nobody cares. All I was saying was a minor hockey, minor ball. Yes. Oh, so we are talking, we're talking kids sports. What I was saying, here's what I was saying. You had lots of time to refine your answer to you. Yeah, sure. So in minor hockey, if you've got, like, if you got a team with tier one and tier five caliber hockey players, the tier five caliber hockey players.

What you've actually played on back in your day. Sure. The tier five, the tier five hockey players don't touch the puck, essentially. You didn't pass the puck to your fellow Hillmontites? In ball, so much is pitching and hitting that even if you got a tier one kid playing with tier five players on a, on a, on a ball team. So much of it is pitching and hitting that that the tier five kid hitting doesn't affect the tier one kid hitting. The tier one is going to get the same amount of pitches. The tier five kid's going to get the same monitor pitches.

Now you go, well, that might affect whether you can win or lose. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. You know, you need all good players. But the question is, is where is it easier to hot? So you have a hockey team that's full of AA guys and they got a D guy. And you got a ball team that's full of AA guys and they got a D guy. Which one's easier to hide the guy?

The baseball. I don't know. For sure. Sean? My only thought is it just depends on position. because if your D guy is a goaltender, that's pretty hard to hide. I will say football. Because they take as many kids will come and then they don't see a snap.

Yeah, well, they don't play them. Yeah, well, they just hide them, hey? You know what I love is all the woke teachers out there, you know, it doesn't matter about volleyball, right? They can sit all the kids they want, volleyball, basketball, football, but everybody just loses their mind in hockey and baseball. I tell you what, if you're in the States, though, probably a different story. Probably. Baseball and football being two big sports down there. So you're telling me there's no D players on the football team down in Texas?

Down in the States? No, no, there is, but I'm sure what do they do with them? I'm sure they run their bags off them and they sit on the bench. Give them a clipboard and say, tell them around the music. I've been funny if hardly was here. Sorry, Harold. I was actually saying in baseball, it's easier to play D players. with tier one players on a team

or the development for the players doesn't change that much because your pitching and hitting isn't dependent on your D players or your tier one players. I don't know. I think we've all played on the teams where you had the top guys and the bottom guys, especially the, you know,

coming from small towns. And if your top guys are good enough, you tend to score enough goals to beat most teams and you kind of hide the bottom guys and they go out there and they work hard and get the puck out. And in ball, if you get enough bottom guys playing in the lineup, it can really be a rally killer.

I'm not saying you're wrong, because I think it can, I just think it can be both ways. There's ways to hide players. You know, it's fun when you get to the AA level. But the funny thing is, I find it doesn't matter which level.

You can be coaching D and you've got the three bottom players. And you can be coaching B and you've got the three bottom players. You can be coaching AA and you get three bottom players, right? Like, it doesn't seem like that all the time. You never have this team where everybody, is so awesome. You got new now? We tell her bottom player.

Look at the oilers. Sorry, Sam. Hey, to shout out to Sam, he scored Atrick today on mustard. Yeah, yeah, he did. So you look at the Oilers, you got your three bottom players. No matter what you've got, you're always going to have players that are bubble kids. Yeah. It's just the way it is.

And as a coach, you've got to find a way to keep them as part of the team and develop them so that they're, instead of being down here, they're a little bit higher. Yeah. No matter what. Yeah. Really. Because the McDavid Did we actually answer the question? I don't know if we answered the question.

We kind of talked around it. So McDavid, you don't actually have to coach all that much because he's so good. Right. And he's probably easier to coach anyhow because he's so good. Yeah. But where you're coaching really comes. I don't know about that. When McDavid's not back checking and you're getting scored on, which has happened,

do you think that's an easier or harder conversation than, say, Pod Colson, who you can just throw out of the lineup? I would say it's a harder. conversation. It's a it's a different conversation for sure. It's a lot more precarious of a conversation because you cannot treat McDavid like you would Paul Colson. Pod Colson you can have a very direct and harsh conversation with them with McDavid you're not having that conversation with him. Wouldn't you say that's Carolina? Carolina treats everyone like their pod Colson. Which is why Ratna didn't want which is why Randon and didn't stay there. Which is why they're always going to be a really good team

but probably a never great team because they're not going to have top end talent. Sebastian Aho is a top-end talent, but you just got to find the right guys. Is Sebastian Aho? Mark Messier would have been the right guy in that team. Yeah. Yeah. Jonathan Taves would have been the right guy in that team. Yes.

Maybe even Nathan McKinnon. Fair? But your top, top-end guys, I don't think want to go to Carolina because they want to be. Well, I'm just saying if you found the right top-end guy, J.T. Miller would go there. L.H. Pedersen were not. So Jonathan Taves might go there. Patrick K. Not.

but Jonathan Taves didn't put up the numbers that Patrick Kane did, and Chicago needed both those guys to win a championship. So you sit there and go, you don't want those guys, and it's like, no, some of those guys bring in a certain skill set and talent. I'll give me another example. Randy Moss was probably... One of the greatest wide receivers of his time. That's right.

But he was probably a prima donna. Oh, he was. For sure. And so you go, well, we don't want him. because you've premed on it. It's like, no, you need some of those guys that bring high-end skill sets, but you're just going to have to deal with the other side of that. Well, that reminds me of Phil Kessel.

Because Phil Kessel, as the top guy in Toronto, couldn't drive the bus. But then they threw him with Crosby and Malkin and Latang and Flurry and guys, lots of leadership there. And old Phil was out there on the second, third line, doing his thing. And was perfectly fine and won cups. One, two cups, right? As a coach, you got to find a way to bring the best. out of your players while treating everyone about the same.

But not the same. But not the same. So my answer, to give you a straightforward answer, because I don't know what the hell that was, is I don't disagree with anything you're saying, but I don't know if that answered the question. The question, I would prefer to hide, if I had to hide one player, I would prefer to hide him on a baseball team, just like Dustin says. After all the rhetoric.

After all the rhetoric, I think I switched my answer to football. Let me just sit him in the match, give him a clip. I'm not wrong with football, though, am I? You just think how many players a guy? Don't worry, bud. You'll get in their next year. Yeah, that's right. See, the thing that actually surprises me about football is they, well, no, they do it.

I'm going to be fair to them. Most coaches do it is they'll get up like 32 to nothing and then bring in the B team. Yeah. Or get down 32 to nothing and bring in the B team. Yeah. Right? So, I mean, they do it how it's supposed to be done. You know what's funny is that I think back 30, 40 years ago when I was playing like volleyball or basketball,

You played volleyball and basketball? Yeah, I did. Interesting. You didn't? I played some volleyball. I never did play basketball. Not one day. That's why I'm not very good at it.

I know I can jump really hot. You know how I know I was not a good volleyball player? In Hillmond, I sat on the bench. I did not sit on the bench. Dosted you? I didn't sit on the bench. No. I sat on the bench.

You know how I was a really bad basketball player? Because back when he used to have the house. Also, I know I'm not a good volleyball player because back in college when Mel was playing, they invited out a bunch of the hockey guys to come play. a game against them. Yeah. And I'm dating the captain and I didn't get invited. I'm like, yeah, I could take a hint.

Sean's not blocking anything at the net. No, no, no, I'm, I'm the setter. You know how I was, no, I was the worst player in basketball? Because when I owned a house two doors down from home at all's and Colby was there and we used to play a basketball game with my three younger brothers, I'd be put on the team with the one basketball player who was Colby because I sucked that bad. And I was okay with it. And you know, the other reason I know

is because when I get the ball, nobody comes against me, you know why? Because they want me to shoot. I can't shoot. So, no, no, go ahead, Jay. Go ahead. I just want to throw the ball at someone's head. So that's what I was doing to Sammy Day.

You want to shoot? Yeah, go give her. I'm got to cover Dave or whoever. And then he goes in tux three. You're like, that's a rough day. That's a rough day. I think back 40 years ago in all those sports, kids sat on the bench a lot.

Like volleyball, basketball, fastball or baseball back in the day. Like, you just sat on the bench a lot more. I never did that lot. No, I don't mean me in general. Oh, I was a pretty good athlete. But I mean, in general. Hey, we'd hate to have...

I always sat in the bench and volleyball, didn't we do. Yeah, let's shoulder tap here. A little back pat dust? I was pretty good, he says. No, no, but I remember kids sitting on the bench for long periods of time because winning was more important, I guess, or winning was everything. and it was just it wasn't everything but when you're playing it was a world no but it was a world where you

you um you you worked hard to get better to deserve it it wasn't just given right right and that and you train people to be like that so you're training young individuals that you just don't get you don't get to just show up and have the world given to you you got to work for but i'll put it to kids sports right now so we just finish you nine baseball and all year long unine baseball we don't keep track of score and then you get to the final tournament and this year I thought it was really cool for the kids right wins mattered

there was semifinals an a final and all year long they don't do things like that so the games no the kids do no 100% they're asking the score all the time they're keeping track the score but during the game there's nobody keeping score the wins don't matter the losses don't matter

because we don't want to hurt any parents feelings I actually I'm sitting on the board I actually don't know why it turned into that because they look at it as development, right? We're going to develop these kids into baseball athletes. But if I look at hockey the same way, we have our, you know, U7 or U9 home tournament and there's no A-final.

And as a kid, I can remember playing in U-7, in Tom Thumb, and they're always being an A-final. Like always. I have pictures of getting a second-place trophy and like I can, you know, when I watch my kids react to losing, I'm like, well, they inherited that for me because I've seen the pictures. But we always went to tournaments. There was always winners and losers.

If you didn't get out of your pool, then you didn't get anything. But isn't that where you also taught about good sportsmanship? 100%. Right? How to lose properly. Well, how to motivate you to do better, to practice. You know, I used to have the thing with the girls when I was coaching them that if they won, and they were a pretty successful team.

But if we tied or lost on a weekend, then we hard skated the next week. and if they went out there and worked hard and got both games, there was a reward and we didn't hard skate. Now, what I did is I had hard practices, but I didn't have the bag skate. And there's, you're just teaching people that hard work, there's rewards for it. And if you lose, there's a way to come, like, there's just, there's so many lessons in sport. And, and you can still have a good coach. And I've made my mistakes back in my day too, where I look back and I should have played someone

a little more or, or given them more incentive. or put them in a different position to succeed. But it's all a learning process. And if you get good coaches and understand that and give everybody a position to succeed on the team, you're helping develop that kid. You don't know what his background is. And I've seen kids where you can't send out a kid

to go be the top score on the team if he's not there to do it because now you're going to hurt him because the other kids are going to make fun of them or give him a hard time. He feels bad. He's nervous. Give him a spot to succeed. It'll build his confidence.

And then he starts to go. And that's just my take on it. So looking at U-13 ball this year, so this is not U-9, this is a little bit older even, we did keep track of scores during the games and the kids cared. At the same time, the league didn't really do anything with them. Like it wasn't, you know, playoff positioning, anything like that. We did have a year in tournament where wins, losses mattered. There was a champion.

There was silver. There was bronze. And if I look at the whole year as a whole, I think it actually worked out really well. the kids all played during the regular season because the games weren't for positioning or anything all the kids played you know it's not like you went well we're going to play these kids more these kids less you look at it all and you go no we need to develop all the kids for the end of the year and the kids for the most part showed up and tried hard and that's all you want to see right and then at the end of the year you had a tournament and it's a little bit more well no we're here

to win now you know and so the players that worked the hardest that tried the best that have the best skill sets, they play a little bit more than the kids that don't. Everyone gets to hit, so that's all fair. But in the field, you know, it's no different than pitching. You need kids that can pitch. You can't have a kid out there. Everybody can pitch. No, that's right. And so if I look at it all, you develop the kids all throughout the year and everyone plays and it's all good. Now, you are keeping tracks and wins losses and runs for and against. That's all good. But everybody knows anyways. Like, who are we kidding? No, no, for sure. And the kids care. Well, you, but, but all I'm saying is it's not like the league used that

to not have teams make the playoffs or anything like that and at the end of the year we did have wins a year in tournament where there was a champion so I think it was the best of both worlds one of the sports that shocked me that still gives out for a second third and I don't know why I just was shocked by it

she did cross country last year right so his first race he's racing against I think it's grade fives and he plays fifth and I listen if anyone's met me, they know I'm not a runner. I don't, I don't, especially long form running. I'm like, oh, what a painful, painful thing. And so Mel and I, when we were, you know, Shay signed up for it.

We're like, you know, he signed up because all his buddies were doing. Okay, fine. We'll see how long this laughed. I remember making a joke about it, you know, just kind of myself. Like, okay, we'll see how this goes. And the first race he did, he went racing off. And I'm like, oh, he better pace himself. That's a terrible.

And then he plays fifth. And they gave out ribbons to the first ten. So that means if you place 11th, you got nothing. And there was a lot of cries and a lot of tears. And Shay got the fifth, and I watched him. And he's like, so wait, if I get first, I get a first place. It's probably the first time in his life he's been given a fifth. And he's walking the kids and he's realizing there's a first.

And so he's on the ride home and he's gone, I can't wait to get first. I'm going to get first. So then he gets first, he gets first, he gets first. I watched him in Lloyd against all of his hockey buddies. and he's got one chasing him the entire way, and he gets first, and he's pumped. And I'm like, why is it that cross-country is the one sport still doing for a second? I do not want anybody to take that away from them, because kids push themselves way harder when they know first is on the line, more so than bragging rights.

There is a ribbon to go with that. And last year they did, I think it's regionals or districts, one of the two. And there was probably 150 kids out at Maidstone, Silver Lake. And he's racing now against, for sure, grade five's as a grade tour out of 150 kids, roughly. And half the time I can see him leading the way. And I'm like, holy crap. Like, what's going on here? And he plays sixth.

And he is like, he's sitting in the group photo of the top 10. And there's a couple of grade five kids going, what are you doing here? How did you get here? Right? There's this little grade tour in there. But it's winning. It's getting a top 10 ribbon. And, you know, it's fun.

about him I go so you're gonna do it next year now I'm pumped I think I'm coming to cross-country dad I don't know dad I liked it but I don't know like what like if you keep that mindset you'll be first and you'll get to go to higher levels because as you get older and you place first then you get to go to provincials and on and on and see I see see for me it wasn't about the ribbon I wanted to finish in the top two so you could go to Balford and miss a day school I can know that was I can relate to that yes so you know if something else it still does it for age now not at the very very young

kids when they're first starting out because they really don't have placings and they don't really compete at all but as soon as you become a junior and that starts at like grade i don't know grade three or something like that they have placings for every class uh if you're in public speaking they do and so someone like owen that's something he looks forward to because he's really good of public speaking and so he looks forward to competing and winning every year because that's something is really good at But it goes for all the, all the 4-H events, you know, you got your, your different classes plus your showmanship, plus your grooming and all that stuff. And you can get first down to seventh or whatever. And there's been years where the kids have got last place and they're just tore up.

You know, the judge didn't like something or ask them a question. They didn't know what they answer to and they're just mad. And they hate that judge. And it's a big deal. But they work at it next year. But they work at it next year. Because they don't want to be last again. They want to improve.

Yeah. Or, you know what else happens? Just to be truthful is sometimes. you know, if you're talking track and field, they don't go in that event next year. They pick a different event or they go on piano. I go back to volleyball. Sitting on the bench sucked. Yeah.

So did you play volleyball the rest of your life? No, I didn't. You pick a sport you're good at. Did you go play junior in college? Yeah. In hockey? Yeah, you did. It's okay.

We're not all going to be, you know, the fastest on the 100 meter down. I go back to triathlon where we're swimming. You know, Harley and I are decent swimmers and Sean looks like a tugboat out there. He's built like a tugboat. We go to this triathlon in a, Okotoketokes. Okay. You remember we were training that summer? And I'm playing junior hockey at this point. So I'm in good shape. I'm in great shape. And we all, we're in the Okotokos. Forgive me, Okotokians. We're in the lake. And we have to do two laps. The Okotokos lake? 500 meters, I think it was. Yeah. And I get in and I'm watching all these guys and they got like these spandex suits and like everything. And I'm like, oh boy. Anyways, I get in there. And after the first lap, I'm doing the doggy. paddle okay and then they all lap me because you got to do two and I'm like getting hit in the face and I'm like I'm I was just sat there but I had the doggy battle now for whatever it was 20 minutes

my body's killing me so I'm sitting there and I'm just slowly going around my second lap and there's a guy pulls up in a canoe I'm like are you here to make sure I don't drown anything he's like yes yes I am I'm like all right and so I am the second last out of the lake there's two of us and I tell you what I was so thankful I got back to land I'm like I'm never doing this ever again Again, I'm never swimming a long distance. I watch those videos of people who've swam, you know, like days on end, I'm like, I'd be drowned, I'd be dead. There's just no way about it. My body makeup is not built for water.

In that same race, I placed like second in the bike at everyone. Well, just put me on a team, coach. I don't need to be the swimmer because I suck. And I am lucky I didn't drown in Okotoketocs that day. That was awful. The sea was very angry that day, my friends. It was not fun. So yes, Dustin and Harley, great swimmer.

Sean, not so much. I'm not good either. Well, it comes down to body shape. When it comes to biking, Sean's got these quads that are massive. How many hills did you beat me across in Canada, Dust? Well, there was one. I don't think so. There was one.

There was one. There was one. I think Dustin has this, he's created this memory of his head where there was one. I don't think there was one. I don't think there was one. You know how many times he tried every single day. And sometimes I'd let him get a little ways ahead And then I would just reel them in

To piss him off It's the only time You know, one of the hills I lost Was in Quebec to a black guy who was a runner And me and him were going up this big long hill And part way up it I think we both realized what was going on And he started sprinting

And I started biking as hard as I could And you gotta remember I'd come on a junior hockey Now we're across, what, three, four provinces My legs are brick They are solid And we went as hard we could up of whatever it was and he beat me by i swear a hair and i should have sat and had a

conversation but we both looked at each other chuckled and carry it on that's the only person i remember beating me on any flipping hill so dustin keeps talking about this one which hill was magic hill what was the magic hill it was in newfoundland it was early on oh i did i did beat him on one hill that that that me beating you going up one hill even though you don't remember it reminds me was that when he blew a tire when jason and i he might have blown a tire because he was so mad. Anyhow, this reminds me of Jason and I getting off the bus and racing up the hill after school. And Jason used to do the same thing with me. Being three years older, he'd let me get partway up the hill and then, and then go and he beat me every time. But there was one time, there was one time

where I got off the bus and started sprinting right away. And I don't know if Jason was chat with someone and didn't realize what was going on and I got far enough ahead where I actually couldn't get him up the hill. That was the one time. And it just sticks in your mind, eh? It does. It was a proud moment. I tell you what, this weekend playing U-9 ball tournament, it was like miserable, cold, raining, everything. I was saying to the other coaches, but these kids will remember this. Like, you just don't forget that, you know, the wins and losses years later will be fade

into oblivion, right? They won't remember that, but they will remember standing out and like, it just didn't rain hard enough to stop a game. So they're sitting out there, they got like five layers on still playing ball. And I'm like, this is ball. Like this is ball. about that? I had a kid to me like, we're going to call it rain delay, right?

And it's spitting. Like, not, like, it's, you can hardly feel it. And I'm like, no, we're not calling a rain delay. Oh, well, it's raining though. I'm like, yeah. No, I realize it's cold and it's miserable, but like it's, it's not even making the ground, right, wet kid.

You know, just get back out there. Yeah. All right, gentlemen. Appreciate you coming in. This will do it for another brother's roundtable a couple months. See you next spring? Yeah, and well, we to do it probably what do you think opening day maybe

yeah before the season starts before the season starts yeah yeah because we got some predictions we got to have some predictions we got to have a little bit of fun to start the season out and then and then it'll be back next April maybe throw uh maybe have should we have what we should do is we'll have like two or three predictions

can't have four because we can't all win a silver coin so we gotta have like two or three that And maybe one guy wins two or three coins, or maybe they're spread out, but two or three predictions. There you go. Jay, J, trying to work the silver coins in his favor. Well, I'm trying to build my retirement, hey? Yes, yes. Folks, thanks for following us for a brother's roundtable playoff stretch.

And thanks, gentlemen, for hopping in and doing this. Shout out to Harals who couldn't be here tonight. It's my own fault. We didn't, the recording, it didn't work. So we had one for a bit, and Harley was here. Can't make the second one. So, you know, story of our lives. Anyways, thanks again, gentlemen,

and we'll catch up to you here after summer. Sounds good.