Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 251: Featuring Elliotte Friedman

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

On Monday’s episode of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Elliotte Friedman, NHL Insider for Sportsnet. Elliotte joins (54:45) to talk about the trade deadline, some rumors he is hearing and what goes into breaking a deal at the deadline. He also brings up the potential for an offer sheet for Mat Barzal this summer. The guys also talk some NHL news, discussing Mika Zibanejad, the Islanders, Coronavirus and more.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 251 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka, here on the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What's up, gang? Another busy Saturday in the NHL, some big headlines going on, but let's say hi to the boys first. G. Grinelli, you look like you're in your usual homestead today. I am. I am in New York City. I was supposed to be in Florida this weekend,

but we hired a new producer, videographer, Chase, so I couldn't leave him out to dry this week. Had to help him out. I'm a team guy. That's what I do. So, yeah, I'm here in New York. That's what captains do. Next up, the wit dog, Mariah Whitney. What's going on, brother? What up, what up, guys? How you

doing? I had a great special Saturday night. It was a birthday gift to me from my wife. We got a box at the BU Northeastern game. It was Ryder's first hockey game. Nice. And let me tell you, this kid sat there and did not stare. He did not take his eyes off of the ice. He just watched all three periods and in the intermission,

stare at the Zamboni. So a bunch of my friends were there, had a great crew. My dad came, so it was kind of full circle, coming to watch me play there and now bringing Ryder for games. And it was actually the 1995 NCAA title team anniversary, 25th year. So I got to see Sean Bates. We've mentioned him. He said he'll come on the pod, classic storyteller, Medford Mass.

And a bunch of other great guys I ran into. Chris Keller, former teammate, said he'll come on the pod classic storyteller medford mass and a bunch of other great guys i ran into chris keller former teammates that'll come on so we lined up some interviews and i had a great i had a great saturday so it was a pretty sweet weekend so far sully there yeah he was but i didn't see him because they had like there was a bunch of alumni i saw yipper yipper said they played their last uh two months in in moscow they never went back to china once the coronavirus hit yeah Yeah, we're going to get to that a little later as well. Corona light. Yeah, no shit. Next up, boy, Paul Biznasty.

That's not Scottsdale, Arizona behind you. Where are you this weekend, buddy? I'm in Florida. I'll still go there. Not Daytona. I'm in South Beach, man. Came down here to see my girlfriend. She lives in Gainesville, but we met up here,

and we're doing a nice little birthday getaway. It's Biz's 35th birthday coming up on the 11th, so we ended up going out for a nice sushi dinner last night, and then we checked out that club called Live for the first time. I'd never been there. Boys, I lasted about 90 minutes, and I thank you to David Gruttman, Mike Kimmel from Toronto, one of the founders, I believe, in some restaurants down here, like Komodo and what's the other one?

Poppy Steak, all those guys. I don't know if you guys know who David Gruttman is. He's kind of like the face of nightlife in Miami. He has a bunch of awesome restaurants as well. That's not a bad face to have, huh? No. Well, he's married, so he ain't. I'm sure his buddies are getting some awesome residuals.

But thanks to those guys as well as Jimmy Greenup, they took care of me last night. And I just, I don't know, I just. I was going to say, were you quick to leave because you're not on the booze or because you're with a girl? Is it just like kind of over the club scene? I just, the space. I got no desire for clubs.

I need my space. And if I'm going to do clubs, I have to have my own table. And it's got to be my own friends. And everybody's got to have enough little space around them. So you're feeling a little claustrophobic in there. Yeah, a bit. But it was a great DJ. It was a good scene.

But I think I'm hanging them up, boys. I'm like Avery. I'm going to throw my skates into the Hudson. Yeah, I didn't like clubs when I was club age. Too fucking too loud, too thumpy. We got a great guest coming up a little later, Elliot Friedman, one of the best hockey reporters up in Canada. We sat down with him a couple weeks ago for a little over an hour.

Had a great chat. It was just after the trade deadline, so a lot of kind of trade talk, e-bug stuff, so we wanted to get it out to you while it's still fresh uh but let's move over to the news and uh the game lost one of its titans on friday as montreal canadians legend honore richard passed away at 84 uh known as the pocket rocket the younger and shorter brother of hab's icon maurice the rocket richard won a record 11 cups as a player in 20 nhl seasons with dog I know you had stuff you wanted to share here. Well, everyone knows about Maurice Richard and that's Henry's older

brother and I don't think enough people realize what a special player and career Henry had and I can kind of go into a lot of stuff but I want to first shout out Sportsnet had an unreal five minute video that I think was narrated by Steven Brunt. Go check it out because Cause I'm kind of

just reading off some of the things that they let you, that they let you know about his life and career in that video. So go check that out, but 15 years younger than Maurice Richard. So you have to imagine that. I mean, that's like a second dad to him, like a best friend in a different way than most brothers are just because when, when Maurice became a Canadian, um, Henry was six years old and he went to every game sitting on his dad's lap watching his older brother, and it was his dream in life to be a Montreal Canadian. And never once did he think that he could play with his brother

because of the age difference. And sure enough, he said in this video, he mentions that he didn't even tell people he dreamed of playing for the Canadians because they thought people would laugh at him and tell him he's a fool. He used to say he wanted to be a plumber growing up like the vindog but in in the end he ended up dominating he led the quebec major junior league two years in a row and scoring and his coach at the time who was a former canadians legend like elmer lock or

something his name is i'd never heard of him but all right you know who that is yeah elmo okay oh yeah that was his coaching junior he said there's no chance you could play in the nhl the only reason you were invited to canadians camp in 55 is because your brother asked us to well he goes there and immediately just starts lighting up he played wing with jean beliveau his rookie year for a little bit but then they switched him over to center and put his brother on his wing five years in a row they played together in five years they won five Stanley Cups. The guy ended up winning 11 as a player. Is that good?

11. Is that good? Does that get the job done, Biz? So he won more Stanley Cups than any other player did as a player in the history of the league with 11. He goes on to actually have more points than his brother, Maurice Richard. He played more games, NHL games, than any other Montreal Canadian. And I don't know if that record still stands, but at the time it did. And 20 seasons, I mean, this guy carved out a career in it for himself

that was as special, if not better, than his brothers. And he didn't have that goal-scoring ability, but he was a wizard setting up guys with the puck. And the amazing thing was that Maurice Richard, he was going to retire. I mean, he had already played a long time, and then his brother came on, and he said, let's stick around and do it. And then the run they went on was unreal. So his career and what he did, and I think more than anything,

coming into the league with the pressure of having your brother be one of the greatest to ever do it, I mean, that's hard enough in itself. And then the guy goes on to become a superstar in his own right, just shows that it was a dream life. I mean, your older brother's a star of the hometown team, and then you go on to do the same thing and get to play with him. So rest in peace and thinking of thoughts and prayers

to all of his family members. Absolutely. These guys are like the founding fathers of the game and the reason that we got to play and have such nice lives, I mean, especially Witt. So, you know, rest in peace for sure, and very well said, Witt. Yeah, not only following an icon, Witt, but in Montreal, and then only being 5'7 as well back in 1955.

I mean, he was only 5'7. That's why they gave him the nickname the Pocket Rocket. I guess he hated that nickname. Well, probably too, you know, because, you know. He was his own player. So the other stuff I was reading, like Maurice Richard had a temper, right? That guy was a nut. And people were like, oh, he's going to protect his younger brother.

It was like his son. Well, sure. Shit. Henry Richard, he got into the mix, too. He wasn't afraid at all. His brother didn't need to stick up for him. So, yeah, three inches shorter than Maurice. And he's only 160 pounds, like you said.

So to do it, to do it at that size then, that's crazy. We heard Derek Sanderson talk about everyone fighting then. There was no hiding. Yeah, and also should note he scored two cup clinches as well in 66 and 71. And in 71, he scored the game-tying goal as well in Game 7 before scoring the game-winner in Game 7. So the guy was money as well. My old man, he had season tickets.

He has such respect for the Canadians. Anytime I text him about one of these old Canadians dying, like they done me this favorite team for years, but he's, he still has that reverence for these old Canadian teams. Like in his voice, you can still hear it. So like you guys said,

our condolences and sympathies to all the family, friends, and many fans of Andre Rashad, a legendary champion in the game of hockey for sure. I can move on to some more pleasant topics here, boys. We have some fun stuff. Mika Zibinejad, a legendary champion in the game of hockey for sure. We move on to some more pleasant topics here. Boys, we have some fun stuff. Mika Zibinijad, unreal. He ties a Rangers franchise record with five goals on Thursday,

lead the Rags to a 6-5 win in OT over the Caps. They're dogging, trying to get in the playoffs, not sure they're going to do it. But unreal effort the other night, Biz. I know we were texting during the game. It was pretty wild. Yeah, he enters the top five as far as goal scores in the National Hockey League.

When he ended up coming over from Ottawa, I didn't know where this guy's ceiling was, but I tell you what, he's surpassed everybody's expectations. And, I mean, another guy, I guess you could throw his hat in for the Hart Trophy. I mean, he's been just incredible for that team. Unfortunately, a tough loss to New Jersey last night or two nights ago when you're listening to this.

But he had another one in that one. I believe he's got 10 goals over his last four games. Am I wrong here? Maybe it's nine. But this guy is just ramping up his play down the stretch here and just an incredible player to watch. We've talked about it before too this guy actually gets it done off the ice too he is a dj he's he's released a song

and it's on itunes um ended up having to work out a a little uh a little handshake agreement with the team where he can't play any sets during the course of the season everybody it's it's not fucking bad really yes this guy is multi-talented. There's a ton of, isn't Swedish DJs, that's like, they produce DJs, right? Yeah. He's actually the fourth member of Swedish House Mafia. I don't know if you guys knew that. They kind of added him in after he dropped that tune.

So now that he's entered into the heart chat, I mean, fuck, he could probably do a solo act on tour now and sell out. So we'll take you back in time to when the trade went down and now saying all this I feel like I can speak from experience and prove that I'm not trying to dig at Derek Broussard because I was

the guy that was a horrific trade on the other end right they got Kunitz in Pittsburgh they got rid of me Broussard better player than I ever was I'll tell you that for free but the Rangers stole Mika Zibanejad from the Ottawa Senators. So we're going to go and we're going to look at – it started Zibanejad's draft year. Everyone said – I kind of called a couple people on him.

He was top 10 talent for sure. And then he went in front of like Scheifele and Couturier. So a couple Canadian really good you know, really good players. He goes six overall. This is in 2011. And his career starts off nice. I mean, he goes to Ottawa and every single year in Ottawa, his goals, they were going up, dude.

It was his full rookie year. He got seven goals, 42 games. The next season, he got 16 and 69 games. Then the next two years, he played 80 and 81 games he got 20 and 21 goals what happens that summer the New York Rangers decide to trade him I'm sorry the Ottawa Senators decide to trade him to the Rangers for Derek Broussard now you got to think like he is five years younger than Broussard. Okay. He's going to be an RFA. So you're going to be able to lock them up as he's a young player. He's,

he's continually getting better in the league. He's proven that. And they also got a second round pick. They also got a second round pick from Ottawa with him. Those are the types of trades that get you fired. And part of them, part of the, the reason was that they got the second rounder because Broussard was owed a

$2 million bonus. And they, the Rangers paid that and then made the tradeer because Broussard was owed a $2 million bonus, and the Rangers paid that and then made the trade, or they agreed to pay it even after the trade, whatever happened there. So that was kind of their gift in paying the big money bonus is getting that second round pick. But, dude, what he's done since he's gotten there, the ceiling, they believed in it because they saw the improvement happening. And every year, now his first year in New York, he got injured and his goal number went down to 14

after going up the first four years of his career. But since then, 27, 30, and now 39 and 55 games this year. So this dude is showing that the draft and the high end talent that you saw made a lot of sense. He's a complete game breaker. He's got speed, his shots next level. He compet sense. He's a complete game-breaker. He's got speed. His shot's next level. He competes. He's not soft. He's not easy to play against. So just in the end, just a steal, just a steal of a guy. They got a guy five years younger that they control contract-wise,

and Derek Broussard was a good player for the Rangers, but in the end, you got to be really thanking that the GM got that done. R.A., before I throw it back over to you, rumor has it was Milnek was out of money, so he tried to pay Broussard in air miles, and he said no. So that's actually why the trade happened. So sometimes you can't blame the general managers. He was just going to have Gibson send him copies of Braveheart signed? Well, then Milnek blamed everyone for not showing up and buying tickets,

and that's kind of when everything started going south. But it's weird that – so the year that – the year – the final – the year that they got – the trade happened in the summer. That year in Ottawa, Zibanejad had 51 points. Broussard in New York had, I think, 55. It was like an even year stat-wise for both guys, with one guy being way younger. So, yeah, I mean, it was Ottawa gave up on a guy way too young.

And a lot of times that happens when a guy isn't producing. Well, he actually was, and they still traded him. What's crazy is he's – I mentioned now he's top five in goals. This guy's missed 13 games too. So, he's got 39 and 55. So, you know, I guess it's going to be hard to compete for the heart when you've missed that much time. But as far as, you know, point production per game

and what he's added to that New York Rangers lineup, I didn't look into this before the episode, but I'd be curious to know what their record is with him in the lineup as opposed to without in those 13 games that he missed. I'm not sure if you guys caught the clip. It was Tony D'Angelo's reading off comments after the trade on Twitter to Zbigniew. They were laughing about it.

It was pretty funny. And D'Angelo himself. Were they dogging him? Oh, yeah. D'Angelo was reading him, and Zbigniew was just laughing at him. Yeah, they were totally dogging the trade, chitting all over. Of course, it's Twitter. Can we play a little bit of the clip, Grinnell,

so we can hear some of these funny tweets a little flashback here to july 18 2016 when you were traded to the new york rangers and we're gonna get some people's reactions i'm gonna show you this here no it's a good photo uh first person says his name's mad guy 71 mad guy 71 says why are so many people liking this train? Zach Frank. I think he's talking to the Rangers here. He says, I'm divorcing you. Have a nice life. Well, looks like I'm not a Rangers fan anymore.

So fed up with this organization, it blows my mind. Here, you go through it. Tell me if you've got any thoughts. Not funny. April Fool's Day was a month ago. Oh, my God. Actually, that one's not bad. Yeah, but then this one handing out L's.

People are upset. Turned out to be one of the best trades in Ranger history, JL? Yeah. Probably. This one I don't like. This guy I want a piece of. I mean, I can probably. He says Michael McCarron, MMcCarron82 says he's got a punchable face.

So does MMcCarron82 says he's got a punchable face. So does MMcCarron82. If we're being honest. What's your reaction to that? Has he tweeted after this? He probably tweeted last night. I love Mika. Yeah, that's some good stuff too. And also D'Angelo, he became the first

Rangers defenseman to score 50 in a season since Leach way back in 0-2. And as for five goals in the game, Zabinadjad became just the second player in NHL history to score five, including the overtime game-winning goal. Last guy to do it, I'm sorry, the only other guy to do it, was Federoff way back in 96, also against the Caps. So that's a very rare occasion for that to happen.

Did you see his post-game press conference where he's just like, guys, I don't really know what to tell you. I don't – that was crazy. I can't believe it myself. Are you talking about Quinny or the player? No, it was Zibanejad when he got interviewed. But that press conference when Quinn walked in was funny too. Grinnell, why don't you roll his comment as well?

This is as soon as he walks up to the podium. So that happened. And that's it. That's all you need to hear, man. So so that happened so a little bit of comic relief there so uh congratulations to him and the rangers man a team that i i counted out from the beginning um as i mentioned a very unfortunate loss to the devils after having all that momentum but they're still very much in the hunt and uh and and i mean fuck they might surpass that other new y team, eh, R.A.? Yeah, absolutely, man. They've been going the other way.

The Islanders, I don't know, did you want to jump in to the Islanders right now? Yeah, and R.A., there was a controversial call in their last loss to Carolina where our boy Trocek ended up potting the OT winner, and I'll let you take it over. Yeah, it was, like I said, overtime. Vinny Trocek, who people had been getting on him

because I don't think he had a point yet for Carolina. He scored the overtime game winner, but there was controversy. Sebastian McCaffey handled it with a high stick. Now, after he hit it with the high stick, it went off the post, went right to Trocek. Trocek scored on the rebound. Now, the refs come out and said after, or the pool reporter said that because he hit it with a high stick and it didn't score,

it's live action, almost as if the other team handles it. You know what I'm saying? Like it hits a post. So if it went in, it would have been no goal, obviously, but it hit the post, so it's still a live puck. So I guess what they're saying is hitting the post is the equivalent of the other team hitting it, which I never knew as well. I think a lot of people didn't know that until yesterday either.

Wow. So if he had tipped it down with the high stick, hadn't touched any player, and went to Trocek and he banged it in, then they're saying no goal. But by hitting the post, basically says neutral puck. Yeah. You know what? It kind of makes sense because it's a shot on –

well, it's actually not a shot on net hitting the post. How many people knew that? How many people in your car and traffic knew that if you hit the post, it's not an SOG? Because I learned that like my eighth year in the league when I was dying for a shot on net and ringing the crossbar one night in Edmonton and they're like, I ended the game. No

shot on goal. I'm like, dude, I got a shot on goal. I hit the crossbar. Guys, it's not a shot. Wake up. Eight years in the league. I thought you might have found that out in Russia. I think that actually was like my last year because they were like, this kid didn't know that. Didn't count on Sean Gold. Get him, this kid didn't know that didn't count as strong. Go get him out of the league.

And then it was off to Russia. So off to Russia where they count them. I think if you hit the post there, you get a sog. Yeah. You got to hit the stat sheet there. If not, their coach will fucking put you under fire. That's very interesting. I mean, the Islanders though.

Yeah. They're strong. Well, they've had some, some big injuries to the blue line, of course course with boy chuck and uh who's the other one there that they lost so for the year that was a very that was one of the most underrated losses as far as teams uh over the course of this season going back to that high stick my assumption just from watching the video because i didn't watch the game nor the commentary afterward i thought because it was a high stick in the midst of the play you can't review that so that play itself was not they didn't blow it down for the high stick

so considering that the goal was fine itself you can't go back and review it that's what i assume well maybe they were reviewing if it hit if it hit the post or another player from the islanders i mean i mean the uh i didn't i didn know that rule, nor have I fact checked that. Are you telling me that's a hundred percent factual where if it hits, that's what they said after. All right. Well, fair enough. That's a, that's interesting. I'm interested to hear and read online about it. Cause I, I didn't know that rule. And the other thing was, so before I, this actually makes total sense.

Cause when I watched this all unfold and saw the tweets with the picture of the high stick, I started saying, how is this possible? And then you wonder, you know how the Insta girls, they can change angles and make the picture, make themselves maybe look a little more guys and girls. There's angles to pictures. I've learned that. Oh, I've learned that the hard way. I got some terrible angles.

We love posting all of them. But I wondered maybe that one view when it looked so obvious that it was a high stick, if you went to another side, it might have looked different, but no. Every angle looked high, so it has to be that Post made it neutral and game on for Trocek to bury it. By the way, I think he put it in

off Mayfield's chin. Either way, the Isles, like you said, been struggling, as Joe Namath would say, 2-7-3 in their last 12, scoring less than two goals a game, giving up a shade over three. That is not a winning formula. Do you think maybe,

I know they had a couple injuries, like we just said. Do you think maybe that this Trott style is wearing them down a little bit? It is exhausting to play, right, Whit? I mean, you know, some of these guys want to hockey. I don't want to say like the easy way, but for like in order to produce offense, there's got to be a little bit of cheat offensively.

But these guys, they're so structured all the time. And if they just start getting the saves and keeping these games low scoring, they don't have a snowball's chance in hell in order to compete. And, you know, last year I think we saw that come second round after they surprised the Penguins in the first. But like we said here, losing two top four defensemen, very difficult at this time of year. And aside from the fact that they've just not been playing good hockey,

I think there's a chance that these guys miss playoffs. Now, I've been wrong before about this Islanders team. I'm sure I'm going to hear it from that fan base about doubting them. But what do you think, Whit? Do you think these guys miss playoffs. Now, I've been wrong before about this Islanders team. I'm sure I'm going to hear it from that fan base and about doubting them. But what do you think, Whit? Do you think these guys sneak in? I don't know. I always bet against them because I love getting Frankie pissed.

But I think they can still get in. But what you're mentioning is that they never have easy wins. So for them to win, they do have to grind it out. They have to win low-scoring games. They have to win the smart way. They don't, they never have easy wins. Okay. So for them to win, it's, they do have to grind it out. They have to win low scoring games. They have to win the smart way. They don't turn it over. We've said it a million times. They don't give up odd man rush the stuff they are doing now, but the issue with them and it's no shot at their team. It's just a fact. They don't have game breakers. Okay. And they do have Matt Barzell, but in that system, you really can't consider him like a complete game breaker because he's not allowed to run free.

I know there's times he does change games, but overall, you don't think of the Islanders and offense the way you think of the Bruins with that first line and those three superstars, the Lightning with those studs they got up front, the Maple Leafs with the game-breakers they have at the top, Pittsburgh with Crosby, Malkin, Washington, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Ovechkin. All these teams in the East have superstars. The Islanders have one sort of.

And so when you look at like winning games, occasionally those teams win games the easy way. And yes, you don't win the Stanley Cup that way, but you are able to not grind out Ws every regular season win. The Islanders, they play a different way. Now, Pajot came over, and it was an awesome trade, and you talked about how much he fit in, and he signed a nice little extension,

Brinks truck backed into his backyard, his new place in Long Island, but he hasn't won since he got there. So that starts adding pressure when you're the new guy, and the team's been in a complete slump. You feel bad in a way, like, fuck, we've got to get winning here. I haven't had any success personally or as a team. So it's a weird time. I do think they can get in the playoffs because of how difficult they make it

for other teams. But if they can't score and they stink at the Coliseum, which is like all their fans, that's their thing. Get us to the Collie. We don't lose at the Collie. Well, fuck, you're losing all the time now at the Cali. You know, Biz, despite the 2-7-3 run here, they're still the number one wild card spot right now.

So if they can right the ship and even play 500, they should get in the playoffs. But they do. They got to right the ship soon. I'll tell you, one or more of these guys might need a little bit of new underwear after this latest run, too, Biz. So they might want to check out MeUndies. Hi, friends.

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Roberto Luongo's number one went up to the rafters. Bobby Lue, of course, spent 11 of his 19 years in South Florida. And he's the only goalie to hold the wins record for multiple teams with at least 100 wins for each team. He had 252 for Vancouver and 230 for Florida. And also, Florida is the seventh franchise to retire at number one. I thought that was a pretty interesting note, too. All the other ones are original sixes except for Boston and Philadelphia.

So, small company there. Biz, were you able to catch any of his hilarious speech at all? Yeah, I saw the part where he talked about playing hockey with his grandma in the basement when he would put her in net and she would wear the apron and stuff. So, he actually ended up jumping on the mic when they had that school shooting as well right before the game in Florida. And that's one of the other things that stands out.

Just a fucking leader. I mean, a big reason probably why he got the C when he was in Vancouver. But, you know, a big member of that Florida Panthers organization for a while. Nice little sandwich on his career. I know when he started there, I mean, he played out of his mind. They didn't have the best team, but ends up going to Vancouver, ends up getting those, you know, some experience in playoffs. Probably known mostly for his time in Vancouver when they went on that run

all the way to the finals and lost to the Bruins in Game 7. But, you know, things started getting a little shaky there with him and Corey Schneider. It was nice that he was able back to return to where he all started out and got to ride into the sunset. So what an unbelievable career, an awesome guy, a true leader. And talk about a guy that I'm hoping gets in the media once he's rested a little bit and kind of let the dust settle after an incredible career

because I feel like he's got a lot to offer hilarious on social media just a great hockey personality and maybe even get him and BX together because I mean they're former teammates I'm sure there's a lot of ribbing going on and I feel like they would play well off each other I think that would be perfect and I Luongo mentioned I think he was going to just be kind of away for a little while and then maybe get back in that was around his retirement I could be could be making that up that. That's what I've been known to do. But 830 win seasons, two of them 40 plus wins. And Biz, you mentioned what he did in Florida. And I mean, those Canucks teams were unreal. They never got over the hump. They never lifted Lord Stanley, but he was for sure a Hall of Fame goalie. What is he, all-time in wins, all right?

Yeah, Roberto Luongo, number three all-time in wins after a couple guys named Marty and Patrick. So he'll be in the Hall of Fame for sure soon enough, no doubt about that. So congrats to Roberto Luongo on his number retirement. And speaking of the Panthers, man, they picked up a huge two points over the Habs, and right now they're just three points back of the Leafs with the game in hand. They're knocking on their fucking door right now.

And it wasn't Bobrovsky in that either. It was Chris Driga who got it done. Driga was in the Coast last year. He signed with Florida and the organization in February. They extended him in April. Two years, 1.7 mil. He was in spot duty for the Cats all year, but he's been aces. He got off long-term injuries.

They started both games since. An OT loss and a win. Ten starts this year. 6-2-1 with a 2-1-6 and a 9-3-6 with a shutout. It's going to be interesting to see what Q does down the stretch. You got this guy who's kind of come out of nowhere, but he's playing his ass off versus the $10 million goalie. I'm curious to see how this plays out, Witt.

Yeah, you would never have guessed this would be the case. A little scary time if you're paying all that money for a goaltender who's not playing, but you're doing what you can to win games right now. And as long as this kid goes like this, Quenville is going to keep starting them. He started the last two games. I think one was a loss in overtime. One was a big win, as you mentioned, against Montreal. And now they're going out on the road. They play St. Louis on Monday night. That's a huge tilt. But i talked to a guy on the panthers his name um sounds like oh shandle uh and he said listen we're getting in we're gonna go on a run so they like where they're at i think they got a bunch of talent there that's never really been

the question it's about figuring out how to keep the puck out of their own net but still uh the fact that they're in it shows that the east is just that wide open there's a couple top teams and then there's all these teams fighting to get in. Who knows how it'll play out? But I think that if they did go on a run without Bobrovsky and this kid who spent time in the East Coast League last year, who's obviously proved he's cool, calm, collected out there, things seem to be coming easy, the game's slowing down for him right now.

But if they do it without Bobrovsky in net, that'd be one of the shocking storylines of the season. The Cats finally get in the second season, we call it, the playoffs, and it's not with their $10 million man. Absolutely. They got some very winnable games going here down the stretch. They got Detroit. They got Buffalo.

They got Ottawa twice, Montreal. And then at the end of the year, to close things out, they got Washington. Hey, maybe they'll get lucky in the fact that Washington's resting guys, depending on where they're at in their division. But fuck, boys, that one's even gotten interesting, too, with Philly, who's been on this insane run. Yeah, Biz, no doubt about it. Philly, the hottest team in the national right now.

They won their ninth in a row with the young netminder, Kata Hart, who's been on an absolute tear as well. He improved to 22-2 at home, which is just utterly dominant for a net binder. It took him just 24 appearances for his 20th home win, tying a fellow named Bertie Perrant and his crease mate for four years, Wayne Stevenson. He also improved to 7-0-0, dating back to February 18th, and he became the first goalie in NHL history to record multiple win streaks

of seven-plus games at age 21 or younger. I mean, Carter Hart, what much more can you say about the kid? And I want everyone to remember Carter Hart struggled earlier in this year and everyone relax. The guy's young. You knew he knew he'd figure it out. He's got the pedigree, the two times CHL goal of the year, all the things he's done that not many people have ever done coming into the league as a goalie, showed that when the struggles happened earlier, he would figure it out, and now he has. The entire team has figured it out. They have obviously

now realized exactly how Vino wants him to play. They've been able to figure out how to do it. They have depth guys who are really hard to play against. Hayes was a great signing. We've talked about them long enough now that we keep kind of repeating ourselves, but they keep doing the same thing, so we have to continue to mention it. And then the one guy who I know I talked about and compared him in a sense to Brad Marchand is, is a connect me.

And his year has been complete breakout. I don't think it was a huge surprise. If you watch the flyers a lot, the last few years to see what he'd do, but they're all firing on all cylinders, all these guys. Couturier's underrated. He's the guy that doesn't get mentioned enough in terms of that team and their stars up front, but a hard team to play against. And I think people would have been shocked if you said in November they could or would win the Metro, and now they're right there.

One other quick note on the Flyers. Scumbags, though. Scumbag fans. Scumbag people. But good people deep downers though scumbag fans scumbag people but good people deep down good scumbags they did lose jvi he broke a finger blocking a shot uh and philly's big win over the caps wednesday they're gonna lose him for about four to six weeks but they should have him back for the postseason he said uh 19 goals 21 assists in 66 games but boys the real marquee game on saturday night was uh the two best in the east Tampa and Boston and it was quite the chippy affair uh but Andre Vasilevsky outdueled Tuka Rask in a 5-3 Tampa win it got the lightning within seven points of the Bruins with the game

in hand so that division race ain't over yet uh they still got 14 games to make up seven points I know some might think second place might be a better option uh while playing Toronto but that's no bar that's no guarantee anymore. Now they've been faltering in Florida, creeping up on them a little bit. Whit, did you watch this game? It was a little more chippy than these two usually are for sure. I did watch that game and kind of found myself thinking, oh, my God, if they can meet in the second round.

It won't be in the first round, that's obvious, but what a fucking series that they would have against each other. They're so evenly matched. They have a bunch of guys who really match up well against each other in terms of like if line versus line goes, you know, Kucherov versus Bergeron. And we've talked about both teams at length, but I'll tell you what I'm thinking about leaving that game. I'm thinking about a kid named Anthony Sorelli

who has just shot into the NHL the past few years as a lightning quick checking center who can also score. Could be a front-runner for the Selkies right now. The guys in the machine. No, no, I'm not talking about the good things in Anthony right now. I'm talking about the fact that you now go to sleep every night knowing that Zdeno Chara wants you dead. And you saw what happened. Chara's tangled

up with Maroon, who was trying to defend Sergeyev, I believe. There was a complete ruckus. All of a sudden, Sorelli, the man, decided to come over and cross-check Big Z in the back. Big Z went down.

The look he had in his eyes of trying to figure out who just did that to me look at it go look at it he's on the ice and he's like who just cross-checked me in the red I thought Jack Edwards was gonna jump out of the fucking press jack Edwards is a fucking joke an absolute pigeon of a human I'll tell you right now he knows what he's doing it's just so obvious now that he's trolling everyone so I'm starting to respect it because he's a joke. What he's saying is just, it's so embarrassing that it's so it's starting to switch me. You might get me on your side, Jack, you nerd. But Anthony Sorelli, Chara is going to get him. He's going to get him back at some point. And Maroon ended up fighting him. I was like, oh,

shit, Patty, he did a great job. He actually threw him down. I've never seen Char get thrown down like that, but he knows now after the video was shown, Sorelli hit you in the liver. Sorelli got you in the kidneys, Zdeno. So heads up. Heads up, Anthony. Nothing makes me happier than one of games. Well, I don't know if it was on national TV, but it was on NHL

Network and of course NESN. Is that how you say it? Nesson, yeah. Nesson. And man, he is such a homer, but I love Jack Edwards. I agree with you. It's at the point now where he's trying to rile everyone up. As far as that series is concerned, I personally think that Tampa needs to win that division because I don't think they match up well against Toronto.

And who knows with those high-flying offenses. Yeah, Jack Edwards is a fucking legend. I love him. So they, so they, they have 14 points. They got seven points. They got to make up in 14 games. All right. Is that what you said?

Or did you not say it either way? I mean, it's going to look, it looks hard. I don't know if Tampa is going to be able to catch them, but you remember last year, Boston blew it. They lost that game last game of the year to the Panthers to win the division. And you can say maybe you want to finish second and you get you get Toronto. But I don't know right now, if you're the Bruins, you don't want the Islanders or Columbus. I think I think in the end, you want to win that division. And then, you know, the second round, you get home ice. So playing Toronto might seem better, but they go seven every time with them, the Bruins.

So you know that the Lightning would have a tough time with them. It's not going to be easy to knock the Leafs out. Yeah, you can always tell when the Bruins are a national. Like I tweeted, I texted you guys last night because Twitter is just a flame with fucking Jack Edwards hate. Like people fucking absolutely fucking hate him. Imagine watching a game and never hearing him. And then you're like, what am I listening to right now? You're like, is this the game announcer,

or is this something coming from the kitchen? I mean, I got Sonos. Maybe my wife's playing some foolish podcast about hockey. Where are the announcers from the game? Take your Harvard education! He's like, Cologne's fighting. What are you talking about? Yeah, he's so over the top.

He went to UNH, dude. Barely graduated, I bet. Phil Hughes, the baseball player, I don't know how much, he's so... He went to UNH, dude. Barely graduated, I bet. Phil Hughes, the baseball player, I don't know how much hockey he's watching, but he tweeted, is this Bruins play-by-play guy for real? What a clown. Mind you, he's color, but, you know... No, he's play-by-play.

Jack's the play-by-play. Brick's the color guy, yeah. I mean, he's good. Yeah, Brickley is good. They say he doesn't get more national gigs because of his accent, and I hate that. Really? Yeah, prejudiced against a Boston accent.

Imagine that in this day and age. If it seems like we're a little East heavy, that's only because of the 20 teams that played on Saturday. Only six of them were from the West. But we do need to talk about UC Saros, man. This kid, not single-handedly, helped turn the Preds' season around, but he's been a key factor to it. Pecorino was really struggling.

Saros comes in. He had an unreal February 7-4 with a 9-3-0 save percentage. One shutout. He started 14 games to Rene's five over the last two months. He's bringing, I mean, he's basically keeping them afloat along with Roman Yossi. Yossi just set his new career high, as well as the team record for points in the season by

a D. Fucking Predators, man. They're charging forward. I think they were underperforming all year, but it's been largely on the back of UC Saros here, Whit, no? Yeah, I've been very surprised to see that. You've questioned Rene's playoff performances the past few years, but he's been pretty rock solid in the regular season. I know there were times last season he struggled,

but this year Saros has kind of stolen the job. And the same way we talk about Bobrovsky and the – I can't – what is it? I can't even think of his name in Florida. De Craig? Sorry. Driga? Driga. Jesus. Sorry, Driga. You're going to end up making me eat my words

when you get him in the playoffs, though. But similar to Florida, you've got the guy who you think is going to lead you into the promised land and the backup's coming in and taking it. So whatever it takes to get wins at this point, you don't give a shit who you're sitting, who you're starting. And the other thing with Nashville, you could talk about goaltending, but Forsberg hadn't scored in 20 games. He got one.

Duchesne had also a big slump. He got one. He only has 13. So you're seeing their best offensive players struggle a little bit. You know, they're not scoring. Now Hines has come in there, and the teams, they're in the playoffs as of right now. So when they can get their scoring going

and get some of their high offensive players buzzing, hopefully while also Soros continues this play, they could be in a great spot. No one wants to play them in the first round. No. And the reason I say that is majority of their forwards this year, if not all their top-end forwards, have underperformed. And, you know, maybe with getting some confidence

at the perfect time of the season. I mean, I don't know if you've already mentioned it, guys, but Roman Yossi is far and above their leading scorer with 63 points. Philippe Forsberg, you mentioned his offensive struggles, hadn't scored in 20 games. I mean, he's got 19 but 45 points. If these guys will get it done, though, they need solid goaltending. I say ride the hot hand.

Give it to Saros and see what he can do. I mean, you know, it's unfortunate because, you know, Rene's been their guy for so long. But similar to the situation going on in Florida, man, it's not time to pick favorites. But, you know, they still have a very solid back end. And if they can catch stride at the perfect time here, that's a dangerous team going into playoffs.

And we all know it's a new season once playoffs hit. You know, and these guys aren't going to be concerned about their regular season numbers. So very interested to see if they end up clinching one of those wild card spots. And that's a shit sandwich for one of those top teams if they catch the Predators catching stride in the first round. And not only are you saying that the playoffs are a new season and you're not worried about the underperforming

and what you did in the regular season, it's the exact opposite. Well, you're so fired up. All right, I got a new season. It doesn't even matter one bit. Nobody's going to remember about your shitty regular season. If you light up the playoffs, no one gives a shit, dude. It doesn't matter one bit nobody's gonna remember about your shitty regular if you light up the playoffs no one gives a shit dude doesn't matter one bit so right now you think st louis wins the west hey guys congratulations you have nashville in the first round because that's what it would be right now so that's that's dangerous to think about and uh yeah i mean last two games

dude dallas has been playing great they shut shut them out both times, 2-0, 1-0 wins, one at home, one on the road. And this is – I hope this isn't taken as rude or not sensitive, but sometimes when you have a horrible thing happen, like what happened with the tornado, you can really kind of round – a city can get behind a team. A team can really play for the people who live in that city, people who have been through that horrific ordeal with the tornado. So you never know.

You know what I'm saying? You saw Vegas do it with the shooting. You see cities kind of get behind a team, and teams are able to go on runs. Yep, definitely have seen it before. Shifting gears, we're going to go down from the pros down to a youth league. I don't know if people saw it. It was kind of going around Twitter on Saturday night.

It was a fight between a ref and a coach. Now, first, the first tweet I saw, I came across and said tonight in Kingston, Massa ref was assaulted on the ice. Here's the video. This has to stop a youth hockey. You won't have any refs. And you see a guy, you know, you basically, uh, in street clothes, no skates on uppercutting a referee.

But then I got another tweet a few minutes later. It says there's an extended version in the original thread showing the ref actually initiated the physical aspect of the altercation. And, you know, people can watch the side for themselves. And I know it's somewhat local. I don't know the participants. I'm not getting in the middle. People can watch both clips and make their own call.

But I think, you know, a referee or referee anybody two hands shoving a person on the ice with no equipment on their helmet is in itself a very dangerous action especially when you're the referee i mean people think that the coach was coming at him i thought he was just didn't look like he was threatening him the guy you know you'd say he can defend himself but he is the referee he can also have the option to skate in a way with i wanted to hear what you had to say. You know, you saw the video. Well, I got my opinions, but the rink shrink, I called 1-800-DR-RINK-Shrink right away. I needed his opinion. This isn't his episode.

Is that a number? Yeah, it's a great number. He answers right away. Hello, rink shrink here. He's doing details while he's answering. But let's see. I haven't heard this yet. This is the rink shrink's opinion on the matter.

Okay, Rink Shrink here to comment on the incident that happened down at the Bog in a 2008 playoff game. It looked like a Manchester Monarchs team. Completely unacceptable. On a coach's perspective, just listening to it, the referee asked him to leave. He didn't. Came out onto the ice, ice went at the referee which is wrong to start um i'm being told in in tweets and things like that that at that point the coach spit on the the referee referee pushes him back defends himself and then he gets up and thinks he's tied to him and starts throwing hammers at the guy. Completely unacceptable. You're a coach. You're a leader of young kids.

Parents are going nuts in the stands. It's completely ridiculous. Idiotic, right? It's time for the USA Hockey, the league to step in, and this guy needs to go as a coach. It's just unacceptable. That's all I got for now. Rossi Beach, ring shrink out.

Okay, so I kind of agree with him in the fact that that guy, when he's kicked out of the game, first of all, if you get kicked out of a squirt game, loud and clear, if you are coaching squirts and get kicked out, you are a loser. You're an absolute bum. They're squirts. You're getting kicked out of a game. So he decides to get off. You know what you do when you get kicked out of the game?

First of all, your brain should be like, oh my God, I just got kicked out of a squirt game. I'm coaching young kids. I'm getting kicked out like I'm Toe Blake. No. You walk off the ice. That guy decides to walk at the ref. That was the immediate issue. Okay? Now you could say the ref should have backed up. If that ref skates away,

boom, it's over. And the guy looks even more foolish. But buddy, what are you doing walking at the ref? You just got kicked. Leave. And I don't know what was said. And maybe there will be other parts of this story that come out and I look like an idiot. But in the end, dude, get off the ice, get away from the situation. It looks like in the video, the ref says, walk across the ice. You're out of the game. Well, I can't think of a rink that little kids play in where you can't just walk around the outside of the arena around the glass. I don't know why you had to go across the ice. Maybe it was an arena that you can't walk behind the glass. But an embarrassing, embarrassing look.

And more than anything, everyone should be embarrassed because the fact that this is now going viral and more people are saying how crazy hockey parents are, which is true, sadly enough, it's just a horrible look for the sport and for all these kids involved. Watching a coach pump a ref's eyes shut in a squirt game. Come on. It's embarrassing. I thought the coach was, like, legit leaving to go across. Because I've been in rinks, like, kid rinks in a while, but I know there were old rinks that guys would have to go across. Because I haven't been in kid rinks in a while, but I know there were old rinks that guys would have to cross across.

The ice like that. That's what I thought he was doing. I didn't see him spit at him. I thought he was just kind of getting his last couple words in. Well, he walked at him, though. You can tell that. No, you can see that. He did walk at him.

That was the original. That's the mistake. Boom. Get off the ice. Why are you walking at him? You keeping the fight going? Right. I just, you know, knowing how a guy can hit his head and smack his head. boom don't get off the ice why are you walking out and you're keeping the fight going right i i just

you know i just you know knowing how a guy can hit his head and smack his head that could have been that could have gotten the potential to get real ugly and i'm not taking i'm not going against the ref here just when you see that a guy go down like that you fucking cringe when no one got a bucket on it takes two sides you're right it's absolutely like i said i'm not taking i watched the video i didn't notice the ref shove him when they were talking when he was close to the bench initially. So who knows? There was nothing physical until –

Well, that's what Ross said because people are chiming in online saying – No, he's saying that when the coach walked up to him that I'm saying he never should have. He's saying it came out that at that time he spit on him and then the ref pushed him when he was spit on. Oh. That's what's now being tweeted by somebody related to the ref. You can take that out then. I thought when he was spit on oh that's what that's what's now being tweeted by somebody related to the ref you could take that out then i thought when you were just

fine it's fine it's because it's because it is it is unclear my point is kind of go with what you're saying is you don't we don't know what happened we're getting different reports from each side so unless you're there but in what you see in that video you're you you just wonder what what are you thinking yeah that's when you spit on a guy then i guess all bets are off and like i said you can't really clearly make that out in the video but anyways uh speaking of spit now for our infectious diseases update uh the coronavirus has started to disrupt the hockey world uh as the women's world hockey championship that was scheduled to start in hollywood later this month was canceled due to

the virus. Uh, this absolutely sucks for the ladies. I know biz, I know you, you know, a couple of them. I mean,

they've been working for this. What's it every couple of years. This is all they work for in between tournaments is the next one. So it's, it sucks for them. And then you've got to wonder, man, like I was saying to biz before the show,

what if they cancel on a woman's hockey tournament in Nova Scotia right now, how the fuck are they going to have the Olympics in Tokyo this summer if one of the teams was from Japan and that was the reason they canceled it? How the hell are they going to have the Olympics going forward, man? Very unfortunate, especially with the momentum that women's hockey's got as of late. I went to that PWHPA event on Friday, and of course the news got dropped

on Saturday that, in in fact that they would not be going to the world champions in Halifax which me and Erica and I think maybe even RA and Grinnell planned on going to and and doing some coverage of that in order to help grow the game for these ladies but just the amount of effort they've put in and I mentioned the momentum this is a this is it's it's devastating it sucks. And I feel for these girls. Hopefully this doesn't affect the momentum that they have gained. It was a great event on Friday night. I was unable to attend Saturday, of course, because I flew out of Arizona on Friday. But I wish all these girls luck and hopefully when all this is figured out, they can figure out a way to maybe even get that tournament back to halifax i feel like that would be a great host city i mean wit you were there for the the world junior championships and that must have been a crazy atmosphere they already said next year it's going back okay awesome yeah so that they definitely deserve that and we when we were there interviewing sid the nate dog a bunch of guys were already saying how fired up they were for it because they knew it'd be such a

party scene there for a couple weeks. So that sucks. This whole coronavirus thing, I think everyone's the biggest pussies. I think it's embarrassing. And I know there's different sides to this, and somehow it's become political, which is even more embarrassing. But, dude, I read a guy got it in Boston, or it might have been another city.

What'd they do to him? Ah, they sent him home. Is it not the flu? Is it not the flu? Is it not the flu? I don't know how it's worse than the flu based on the numbers I've seen. And I'm probably an immunodeficiency fucking expert. And I feel like you would actually go against me on this one, R.A., if you actually believe this needs to be happening. I can't believe all this stuff.

And now I hate LeBron's guts, but he had a quote that kind of made me laugh. He goes, I ain't playing if no fans are at the game yeah it's like well you're paid by the Lakers I guess he's like one guy who could afford to sit out though with his shoe deal but what do they call it what do they call it in the NBA

when they rest basically half the season load management load management he's going to be on the Kawhi Leonard he's going to be on the Kawhi Leonard program and just sitting out half the year like he did management he's gonna be on the quiet leonard he's gonna be on the quiet leonard program and just sitting out half the year like he did with the raptors last year management unreal what a league listen i i can't personally blame them for for trying to nip this thing in the butt there's pressure coming from both sides so there is no right answer there's people who are going to be listening, calling you an insensitive asshole.

And there's some people who are going to say you're bang on based on numbers and how many people it's infected and how many people have passed away. I believe it's less than the flu. Do you know how many people die every year from the flu? It's fucking significant. Around the world, it's like 300,000 people, I think. What? Really? No, it's globally between like 250,000 and 500,000 people die a year from the flu.

I mean, maybe I'm missing something. Now, I saw one of the funniest takes ever. Joe Haggerty, that's his name, Harre? Yeah. I actually like Joe. I got to know him during the local year. He'd come to BU and we were all skating. He gets in beefs on Twitter.

He's a Bruins beat reporter. Joe. is that the guy that marshy chirped about yeah yeah marshy chirped but i think they're like friendly right but joe joe's take was that if they're good so so the league and the nhl decided they might make make media not allowed in the locker rooms now and guys to do post-practice and post-game media are going to go to a podium. Kind of like in the playoffs, but I think even reporters in the locker room during playoffs. But now no more media in the locker room. Joe says that if you're going to do that, you might as well not have fans at the game. So he's comparing, he was comparing that media members have to interview guys on a podium

seven yards away from the locker room to not allowing 20,000 fans to come watch the games. What a comparison, Big Joe. I fucking got a kick out of that one, bud. Was that a tweet or a column? It was a tweet and a column, I think. Oh, man. I don't know.

I got sent in a group chat. Hagerty thinks that the media not getting to go into the locker room is the same as the fans not getting to go to the games. Yeah, and just to follow up on that, Commissioner Bettman, he did have press comments the other day about it. And he, you know, some teams, Chris Johnson said, some teams have already started moving the interviews out to the interview area, like you said,

with the use of the playoffs. Not every team has done it, has taken it out of the locker room yet. The league has also looked into open arena dates for other arenas in case they have to postpone games and they've even looked at the worst case scenario of playing in front of an empty arena the nhl obviously doesn't want to do it but the situation or at least the paranoia is causing them to look into this stuff and one other quick note on the on the women's tournament this is the second time it's been canceled the last time was 2003 for that sars outbreak which know, basically turned out to be a bit of a dud too, as far as the worldwide pandemic, it was a big worry about that. And then it never panned out the way people thought it was

going to. So, uh, again, it's unfortunate for the women that, that this type of situation has screwed them. And, uh, we certainly sympathize for them and also all the people in Halifax who all the businesses there who aren't going to get all that money you know i mean you could say they're going to get next year but it doesn't no good paying their bills this year so uh moving along we've been talking about hygiene and having an emphasis on hygiene well you definitely want to check out the dude brand for all your hygiene needs on and off the ice as dudes especially as hockey dudes let's face it we are stanky disgusting humans humans dude as seen on shock tank are the creators of the infamous dude wipes the first flushable wipes for guys for

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And for our Canadian friends, Dude is on amazon.ca and in sport check stores everyone else can head to dudeproducts.com for a special check let's offer use the promo code hockey 20 for 20 off your entire order once again that's hockey 20 for 20 off your entire order at dudeproducts.com all right boys just a couple quick roster updates and then we're going to throw it over to Elliot Friedman. We've been going for a little bit here. Uh, Carolina defenseman,

Brett Pesci is done for the year after soldier shoulder surgery, spit that out. He's going to be out four to six months. Uh, he should be ready for camp. Oscar Clefbon. He got off the, uh,

II. He returned to Edmonton. Clef mom. Uh, he played 22, 11, his first game back. Look right.

Didn't like, he didn't miss a trick. Big addition for the Oils. And we're hearing, well, not hearing, but Vladimir Tarasenko, he's due to be back in, I think, about a week or 10 days. Oh, man. Oh, man. The Blues are already first in the

West. Talk about a huge addition at this stage of the game. So that's going to be huge for them. And one other note, the Regs, Rangers extended GM Jeff Gordon and Chris Drury for the next couple of years as well. Those guys are doing a bang-up job in New York, so they want to keep them there. But, boys, I think we should send it over to Elliott Friedman now. It's been about two and a half years since we had this guy on.

He's one of what I call the four horsemen of Twitter when it comes to hockey news. You see him on Sportsnet here in Canada and on the NHL Network back in the States and, of course, on Hockey Night in Canada every saturday one of the best hockey reporters in the biz welcome back to spit and chiclets elliot friedman which horseman am i famine or pestilence like which one am i i know i forgot they actually means a bad thing at the end of the day it sounded cool but i wish i could chuckle on that but i have no idea what you guys are talking about when they all sneak in in the horse i know that move i've seen the four musketeers. Is that what we're talking about?

No. We'll drop it, Biz. If I said, I don't think Mount Rushmore wouldn't have worked for a four Canadian guy. Okay. Elliot, so you have not been on since Biz wasn't on when you came on with R.A. That's right. Yeah, so it's changed. And in that time, you've started your own podcast.

You and Merrick. That's right. You're one of our boys, Jeff Merrick time, you've started your own podcast. You and Merrick. That's right. You're one of our boys, Jeff Merrick. So you're in the game now. Yes, we're not as highly ranked as your podcast, but we still think it's pretty good. We're different. We are different. You guys actually know what you're talking about.

We're just schooling a lot more people. You know what? It's not what you say. It's how you say it. And that's why this works. Stephen A. Smith. That's right. That's right. I think it's how you say it and that's why this one a smith that's right that's right

i think it's a good counterbalance you guys are much more informative analytical we you know basically swear and tell like kind of while biz tells stories but also like the this is the key thing is that the players know that it's not that they think we're out to get them. It's they don't trust us like they trust you guys. You guys are two of them, and it makes a difference. Yeah, we actually threaten them. We hold them hostage and say, we know what the fuck was happening behind the scenes. That's a lie.

You come on, we give a fucking Powerpuff interview for you, or we're going to leak it all, motherfucker. Nah, nah. No, we just, I don't know. Yeah, we don't. I once again too like they we we allow them to cut anything they want so i mean that's the trust right there i think well i think it's such a small fraternity of men who played in the nhl so when they they see each other it's like they kind of let their guard down just a little bit you know you know it is true like one of the things i do believeen, I don't know if you feel this in this particular group here,

but there are some guys I've worked with. They're like, you know, hey, I've worked with you for a long time. I've known you for a long time. I don't think of you any differently that you didn't play in the NHL. But there are still some guys I've been around. It's always them and you. And there's not too many of them, but the two or three that are like that are really like that.

It's funny. There's been a very small percentage, and when you know it, you fucking know it. You're like, okay, all right, it's obvious. I don't want to stroke you off here with too much fucking can I rant, but if you said something on twitter if i was opposed to it it would make me like rethink what i was thinking like that's how much respect i have for you as far as your even your opinion is concerned and it takes a lot of

time to get to that level where you can even be considered that wow we must be following the different people on twitter because i got people who tell me what an idiot i am well i mean oh yeah you please no one right i mean they every team thinks that you don't like their their guys right yes everybody thinks you hate their team but it's fine like that part of it is mostly fun like like the thing is we don't if it wasn't for those people like none of us would be working right yeah like through the crazed hockey fan is why we all have jobs exactly because they're bananas for the sport i'll be your punching bag it's come on yeah tell me i'll let you throw we should the check clear okay hit me again so we're coming off um a crazy deadline and it was leading up to it it was funny like duffy and you saw a bunch of other

guys tweeting we're not really doing a show anymore are we everything's done but did you have any clue it would be that crazy no no i didn't really waking up i didn't think it would be like i was just hoping it wouldn't be like last year last year we basically sat around all day there were a couple of small deals and then we knew Mark Stone was probably getting traded to Vegas, but it didn't happen until like 250. So you're sitting there all day waiting for this big move to happen. This one, at least there was stuff going on all day. So there was stuff to keep.

Some of it was big. Trocheck happened pretty early. So at least there was stuff to talk about all day. It wasn't as bad as last year into a joke though right because you guys are just killing time up there and there's like sympathy for it there's even a build-up joke going on correct yeah but what like i said this year it wasn't that bad because there's stuff coming plus we had you guys to come on and i like the video that's why i'm getting cut off now it's like oh now we actually got shit to do so fuck you

guys i gotta tell you that was a great hit it was about one we were joking as well one minute away from going really sideways oh yeah because i started thinking oh army i was like oh man what i gotta get off screen here i got nothing else to say i wasn't prepared to be serious they hit me with like the most basic question and they put me on my heels, and I'm like, and then I started spinning, and I'm like, oh. Before we go in there, Elliot, he says, what do you think they're going to ask you? Something easy. I'm like, they're going to ask you, what do you think the most significant trade is? He's like, yeah, yeah.

He goes in, first question, what's the most significant trade so far, biz? I saw the wheels turn, and he had nothing. He come up with Nemestikov. That's what you're getting here. It's getting chickens. Insider information. Just a straight panic attack. Hey, fuck you. I still like that pick. For what they gave over. We'll see what he does.

Hey, better than the Brodziak call there, Peckerhead. Yeah, you hear what I said? You said Brodziak. I go, Brodziak hasn't played a big part for Edmonton this year. And somebody's like, yo, he's retired. I swear to God. I knew that.

I swear I knew it. When I saw his name, I was like, I totally forgot he was still on the roster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's basically what happened to me. We're not making fun of the guy. I was just like, that's on us. No, no, go ahead. What deal on that day, or even the days leading up to the trade deadline

what was the biggest head scratch to you like what you know why did that go why why did that guy go there at the beginning it was trochek okay because you know we heard we'd reported we heard he was available but when like i'll tell you when we reported that carolina was in and it was getting close all right i people in the league on teams texting me saying you got to be wrong about that like there's no logical reason for him to be going to carolina and then some people started texting me saying you think it's a three-way deal because there's no point in carolina having them so like first when people in the league are texting you saying are you sure or that doesn't make any sense that tells you that that caught a lot of people by surprise

is carolina not insane how they trade they will do they make them a lot of bold moves they do yes they do and they have a certain way of thinking like their front office is structured a little bit differently they're like the owner's very involved. Their top analytics guy is very involved. And he's got a big say? He's got a very big say there. And that guy's smart. But fuck, they keep winning, though. Well, you know what?

I think they... I think Brynden Moore is a huge part of that. Is there any type of conflict there? I don't think it's conflict, but I think everybody in that organization, like when Dundon got in there as the owner, he came in like a bull in a china shop. He was ridiculous.

Like he was unafraid to make change. He wouldn't pay the scouts cell phone bills. There was a lot of stuff like that. They fired one of the broadcasters. He'd been doing it forever. Chuck Caton, because he didn't see the value. And he was unbelievable. And also he felt that executives in the

NHL made way too much money. So he said that the people who are going to work for us, it's not going to be the same. I'll tell you one of the big stories is Brendan Moore's contracts coming up. He should take him to the cleaner. It'll be interesting to see.

Paul, I think they're going to undervalue him and i bet you they lose him well we'll see we'll see because that's the one divide where like there still has to be a hockey mind somewhere and for for somebody as much as they're turning around guys who have impact in the lineup he's somehow able to get them and able to make them buy in early and quick. Because there has been some turnover. If you guys were to take a poll of every NHL player and say which coach would you most

want to play for in the league right now, how low do you think he would finish? He's right there. I bet you he wouldn't be lower than i i bet you he might not be lower than second he's that highly regarded by the players in the league yeah he's just fair he's gonna look you in the eye and tell you exactly what he thinks and he's like hey and probably most of the time give him benefit of the doubt and if you can deliver then you've earned

his trust well he's just like he's got that mentality still right yeah he understands and he recognizes that everybody's got a job and every job is important and here's your role and i'm going to make you feel important on this team and you guys talked about uh with certain players kind of maybe not respecting a guy as much in the media who hadn't played well look at look at what rob Brindamore did as a player, too. So if you're a young kid coming in, it's not a coach everyone respects just because of how brilliant he is hockey-mind-wise. Go look at his career. Go look at Game 7 when he won it against Edmonton.

I mean, this guy has done it before as a player, and now he's doing it. He's got some fire through him, too. He's a unit. They used to lock him out of the weight room, apparently, in Michigan State. That is true. No joke. You know, and here's the other thing, too, and's a unit. They used to lock him out of the weight room, apparently, in Michigan State. That is true. No joke. You know, and here's the other thing, too, and you guys can talk to this.

I've had guys tell me before that the fact that the coach is still disciplined enough to be in good shape and he's in killer shape, it resonates with the players. Well, not only that, but the mental capacity of doing it takes so much energy away from you. I can understand why these old players who do that, but the mental capacity of doing it takes so much energy away from you. I can understand why these old players who do that, they're like, fuck, they got beer guts on them. They're like, oh, I just can't get up. I'm fucking not going to the weight room today.

I had a player tell me once, Biz, that he thinks that I would be a little bit more respected if I was in better shape. Because players respect people who are in good shape. Hit the weight room, Elliot. That's where I went immediate, Elliot. Come on. That actually forced me to doing like I think three push-ups. Was that Dallas Eakins because he kicked out all your donuts and stuff when he got that job at Edmonton.

I would have carved them with the rest of them. But I thought that was interesting. I said, it was a good conversation. I go, what do you mean by that? And and he says i think athletes respect people who are in better condition because we are forced to be in good condition i just thought that was it i mean maybe maybe psychologically i don't even know that i'm doing it right i don't know but i would say no not me don't tell obviously not Not me. Obviously not. You got me here. I'm like body shaming R.A. behind the scenes and shit. I want to bring up one other name from the trade deadline.

Joey Thornton. He wanted to get moved. Was it a situation of the price being too high or a lack of interest from contenders? I don't think that, like, R.A., people were saying Boston. I heard Boston wasn't in it. Well, because like I said, where are you going to put him with that lineup? I mean, I know it sounds so weird with Joe Thornhill fan, but he's a center and they got four centers right now. It's the cap. And people also told me Dallas.

But I heard Dallas was they looked, but they weren't as in it as people were. I'll tell you this. I wonder if the one things I kind of heard and i got to do more work on it is you know marlo's fast you can plug him into any lineup anywhere obviously thornton's not fast he's still incredibly skilled he's incredibly smart but i wonder if he's almost got to pick a contender at the start of next year and say i'm starting there and i'm going there right from the beginning because that's that might be a better fit for him and doug will minimum like does he right and he'll do it like he wants to win doug wilson apparently told teams don't even talk to me if you're not a contender

which i mean in today's nhl though i mean like there's like okay i guess you could say there's like four or five teams who are up there who you would consider that. But I think with the parity now, if the right team, and considering the grind of the season, it's really who's staying the healthiest. Yeah. Like, if Kemper stays healthy for the Coyotes, and I know people are going to.

Oh, Jesus. No, but I'm saying it's like, he's coming back. Like, what if they go on a little streak and he gets hot like he did it's anyone's game it is i do think for example i think toronto had interest and i i think that they will pitch to him about coming next year if he wants to they they need that yes you need that in the locker room pay him what you can a hundred percent and but the problem with this is apparently, like Toronto this year, they're looking at it. I mean, they kind of came off a night where they lost to the Zamboni driver,

and they were thinking, we're not getting through Tampa and Boston. And I think San Jose would have thought the same thing. But I'm curious next year if he – but he's got to want to leave San Jose, and I don't know if he does. I agree with you in the sense where some teams are getting a little bit silly too early with their core group where it's like, whoa, I don't think you're even in that realm yet, and you're giving up assets that could maybe help you get there.

Who do you think, which teams do you think have been a bit too aggressive and overvaluing what they might have right now? I say Vancouver, and I might start getting hammered. But they just keep dummying you you know you know here's what it is there's two teams that go for it paul there's the teams that think they can win and there's the teams like vancouver they haven't been in the playoffs in four years okay they when was the last time they won a plow series 2011 right like look look at arizona people made fun of arizona for making the taylor hall trade

this year they haven't been in the playoffs 2012 yeah sometimes you feel like people were ripping columbus last year i totally got it at some point in time you have to say there's a reward for being our fan yeah and you know vancouver look what it's done there. Yeah. And also Vancouver knows that. What are they going to have to pay Pedersen next year? Like nine a year, 10, 10 a year. The way it's going for Quinn Hughes. What are they going to have to pay that guy? 14 a year.

Unreal. So sometimes they're just going to give him the team. He gets the Rockies as a signing bonus. So that's the thing. Land and stories. You've got to take your chance. Sometimes you've got to say to your fans, we're not necessarily the best team, but this is our time,

and this is when we take our shot. And I support that. They're horny for a winner. They're close to it. And it's like, let's do this. Let's give our fans. Our division's not that good. We're playing pretty well. Let's give our fans a reward.

Let's give it a shot. So this pretty much leads off. I mean, this is spring training, I would say. Right after the deadline, you've got to get in a good rhythm before playoffs is every night. Yeah. How many nights? It's basically two and a half. Last year, I think we counted.

I think somebody told me, and if it's wrong, you can tell me. Someone out there will tell me. It was something like 62 nights in a row, something like that. Just to grind. I mean, are you exhausted at the end of it? The killer is when you're thinking, okay, all these series are going to end, and then one goes to seven, and then there's a one the next day i mean it's fantastic it's the best hockey of the year um but uh there are points in it where

you're like oh my god i could really use a night off like what am i gonna say tonight because every night the toughest thing is the 30 minute pregame show okay what do you want to talk about the pregame like oh my god can you throw 19 commercials in this pregame show please what do you want to talk about the pregame like oh my god can you throw 19 commercials in this pregame show please that's right but it's you know i mean you guys know playoffs it's the best time of the year it's the rush best time of the year it's yeah it's not one other name too wild from the deadline i thought he would have ended up elsewhere i guess tommy fitz didn't have the same attitude as Doug Wilson. Wayne Simmons ends up in Buffalo. I think because he's such a well-respected veteran,

people are kind of maybe hoping he ended up somewhere else. Buffalo's not in the playoffs. Like when Kevin Bieksa said you have to have more respect for him than sending him to Buffalo. Basically, he said, okay. Well, here's what I think is going on in their RA. It's really negative in Buffalo right now. Fans are pissed off.

Dwayne, shout out. The organization is upset. It's nasty. It's awful. They're in quicksand right now. They're in quicksand. And they knew they were trading Rodriguez because he asked for a trade earlier in the year.

I don't know if Sherry asked for a trade, but he kind of made it clear he wanted to go if he could. Both those guys need new contracts. So there's two guys going out. You got kahun coming in you're you need one more guy and they wanted somebody with a good attitude and i heard new jersey told teams we're not trading wayne simmons unless it's a good setup for him because he didn't like being a rental last year it didn't work for him in nashville so apparently they buffalo and and Fitzgerald and Botterill worked together in Pittsburgh. I guess they talked to each other about it, and they said,

look, he's going to come here. He's going to play a lot. We're going to put him in a good position. He needs a new contract. And they presented this to Simmons, and he said, okay. And, you know, Buffalo's trying for a miracle run. They probably won't get in. I thought they played really hard the other night in Colorado, but they lost.

They just need positive. And you guys know Simmons. He'll bring the right attitude. And I hope, I mean, I'm biased, but I really hope it's not a quick thing with Ralph Krueger. You've got to give him a couple years here. I'll tell you the big question there, Ryan, is, is his future in that organization going to be coaching,

or is he going to be managing or president of Hockey Ops? I think that's a question they're all kind of wondering. Smart man. One subject, I'm not surprised we have gone this long when I'm talking about it, the e-bug situation. We talked about it a little before we started. It wasn't a problem, really. I mean, what's his name?

Foster, the kid Foster out in Chicago played a couple years ago, and everyone liked it. Now it happens to the Leafs.s the leafs lose and now the gms want to discuss this rule and everybody wants to change it what's your take on this whole thing well i think you have to understand like just i was working in the studio that night when that happened and you know it's three one when he comes in and they score and then the leaves start scoring okay and it's four three and i mean you should see the text I was getting, RA, from, like, owners and people like that. Like, this is a freaking joke.

How can a Leaf employee be sabotaging the Hurricanes like this? Like, there's so much money on the line in this game in terms of, you know, what happens if you miss the playoffs? How much do you lose? The guy's 42 years old. This is embarrassing. It's ridiculous. All right, I can't tell you, and I know you and me are one thing in common.

We both like to gamble. I know a lot of guys that lost a lot of money in that second interview. Me? I got murdered. They were going on to the bet sites. The live bets, oh, yeah. They were dropping. I knew guys, forget the money line.

They were doing Leafs minus a goal and a half. Oh, I had it all out there. I had them all. Third period, money line, puck line. That's why I'm glad I don't gamble. So then as the things changed and Carolina started to pull away, the same people are texting me, like, Leafs are a joke. This is still a risk. I mean, what a great story, even though I'm not crazy about it.

But the thing is, it just shows you how fine the line is. Because the result is good. What a great story. He's on Colbert. He's on the Today Show. Yeah, it's crazy. They're making him the guy of the day in Carolina. But if they lose, what's everybody saying this week?

Oh, for sure. This league is a disgrace. Yeah. In a sense, the league should be fucking paying them more. They saved their ass. You know what that said to a lot about was the Hurricanes' players. Oh, man. They could have totally folded.

And that goes right back to what we were talking about earlier yes their head fucking coach and brindamore gave a he was that was pretty cool speech after well the best was when he came on the ice all the guys are laughing and brindamore's like this is terry like you can see he's so unhappy yeah so a couple years ago one of the gm meetings they talked about should every team have to hire a guy who recently played either junior or college or some level of pro, and he works as like a coach or a video coordinator or something, and he always has to travel with the team. Yeah.

So you always have like a decent third goalie. It's going to happen now. Well, I don't know about that because the team said, like, who's going to pay for that? Well, exactly. So Toronto Maple Leafs, they make all that money. They pay for it. You lost. You're going to pay. I? Well, exactly. Toronto Maple Leafs. They make all that money. They pay for everything. I talked to Shanahan. He said it was cool.

Yeah, just roll the card. He said he wants the air miles, though. That's right. He wants the air miles. You can save for hotel rooms later in the year. That's the thing. Who's going to pay for that? Now, Brian Burke suggested the Players Association create a guy in every city. For example, in Toronto, you're going to the thing like who's gonna pay for that now brian burke suggested the players association create

a guy in every city like for example like in toronto you're gonna have 300 guys who could be that guy in a place like raleigh or or nashville maybe you move a guy there who's that guy i don't know but the fact is at the very least i know how we're gonna pay for it oh what's that well gambling's becoming legal right so i thought you're gonna say like edible sales okay we could do that too we could collab that um you would have gambling on who thinks the first e-bug is going to get to the net and then you collect and pay them with it with all the way that's right and then and then you can bet on like uh save percentage when they actually end up getting in there and you could sell sponsorship on that jersey it just so happens if that goalie enters the game the logo of the team who paid for the or the advertiser who paid for the logo on the front of it gets to keep it and

they get center stage look how much airtime errors got that's true yeah that how much money in advertising with that i've been five i wish you would suggest that to berkey when he was here because he doesn't believe they should advertise on the jerseys. He might have had a heart attack right in his chair. Okay, so we've got to let everyone know, this is the same day we interviewed Brian Burke. So if we've been talking about the e-bug in all these interviews recently, it's because it just happened and it's created some drama.

Yeah, it's been a fun topic too. Absolutely. It's a great topic. But I think one thing you will see ra is i i think they will say you know there's got maybe like an age limit um i don't know because there's there's no 42 year old goalies for a reason well that's funny because everyone's to bring up his age and he won the game like that that's what i kind of find ironic but that's a win for the old guys yeah you can't be going against the age category because that

could be offending people that's right federal offense so yeah come on man so trade day man your phone just must not stop now do you get guys feed you bullshit at all like what you suspect it is like i oh you have a pretty good rapport with the guys you your sources i guess well pretty good um you know there's always stuff you always try to double check things like on that day the worst thing you can do is be wrong just people freaking let you know they're waiting baby um most people on that day are pretty good because they know it's high pressure high energy but like i said with that tro check while when i first got i was like that's god that's got to be wrong so you you need to find someone else who will tell you it's true but there's you'll get a lot of people saying like you know what are you hearing on this what

do you like even teams will say i've had teams before say do you hear anyone else on this guy because i think they're trying to determine if someone's trying to fleece them and saying they've got another offer or it's not true i try to be careful with that stuff because you don't want to be seen as like a double agent but it's kind of silly in the meantime because like has there ever been people where they've given you one it was wrong and then they're kind of like oh motherfucker and then like maybe they give you another one you go are you sure and then you do it and then they're wrong again have you ever had to like be cut someone off and say hey you're no longer my scoop fry bro well i'll say this i always believe paul if if i screwed up it's my

fault like it's i could have tested the accountability is nice but i so i never like to blame anybody else but uh there have been times like there's certain guys who if they send you something it's gold it is gold yeah there's there's there's there's a few people in the league it's gold willy walk a chocolate bar yeah Yeah, it's the Willy Wonka chocolate ticket. But there's some people who will send me something, and I'll look like, I better check this one out. I don't know about this. Oh, I better check this one out.

Yeah, some of them. I mean, I know the old three-source rule they taught in journalism school. It just doesn't work sometimes in that field. Well, Twitter's changed everything, right? Yeah. But you always try to double check if you can now i have already one thing i do try and do if i can is i send a heads up to the gms and the pr guys of the teams involved i'll say hey i'll let you know i got this coming and if they

can get ahead of it a little bit so just so they know yeah if i can't like to warm and and if there's no pressure on like a non-deadline day i'll wait for a response if i can't like to warm and and if there's no pressure on like a non-deadline day i'll wait for a response if i have any reason to believe anybody else is chasing it you can't wait for a response but on deadline day it's it's like it's no holds barred it's like if you're sure you're just going and they all understand royal rumble yeah but like i will i really because i know that uh the the teams the agents the players if you can give them a heads up that you know something they it pays off in the long run if you can do you have a an example of maybe letting somebody know that you got something

that's coming and and the guy said how the fuck did you get that like he was oh yeah there there was one there was one trade i'll tell you a story with uh that you this is why i always keep everybody so quiet but there was one trade last year i'm not gonna i'm not gonna say the the two teams involved but i got the tip and somebody said you better get it out because i think there's other guys are going to know about it so what i did was i texted the two gms and two of their pr people so it was on one text and usually i try to send it just team for team but this time i didn't want to gather and one of the gms wrote back this is unacceptable and uh and and he didn't talk to the group chat one yeah

no no like this that i had the troll okay unacceptable well maybe he was pissed off with the group text no no i don't think it was the group i don't think it was really clarified so the other the other gm called me later the other gm called me later and like he was gonna like they don't confirm these things they they generally keep quiet but he actually joked that he was gonna write on it oh good work elliot just to get the other gm even angrier but he wasn't decided not to do that but that one was mcgruff like i i've like in like i i don't i i try to keep that stuff out of the public but there are definitely some relationships with guys that have suffered because of stuff I want to know who the GM who hates

group Texas maybe off maybe off Mike when I'll tell you like the story that really changed the way I protect people was there was one week where I had a player who I got along with really well and he was

he came to visit Toronto and he blew me off in the dressing room and i was like okay i blatantly looked at you and walked away yeah like i went to go say hi and he walked away from me and uh someone else saw it he goes what did you say about that guy i go i don't know like i don't he was a guy i got along with really well and uh so i was like holy smokes and i couldn't figure it out. And a couple days later, I get a phone call. He calls me.

He says, look, I'm really sorry about that, but I've got to explain something. And I'm like, okay, what happened? He goes, well, so I got called into my GM's office, and he pulled out your blog, 31 Thoughts, and he said, here you were this date and you're quoted uh in the blog and about two weeks later i had some information on the team that the gm didn't like that was out there and he said well obviously you're friendly with elliot you're quoted length here are you the source for this that's unfair and he was like uh no but it really rattled him. And when he told me, it rattled me. It was like, you know, people try to figure out who tells.

So I really try to protect guys a lot. Like, I never tell anybody who I talk to. You never reveal because people try to find out about it. But why did he big time you? So if anyone was looking? Yes. The fake big time you? So if anyone was looking? Yes. The fake, the fake, fake. In New Jersey at the practice facility, you know, guys would come out and they'd be, I'd say hi.

And they'd look up because there was the camera there and they knew Lou Lambert was watching. He's like Robert De Niro. They didn't want anyone to see that they were talking to me. It was pretty funny. I mean, like, I'll ask you about him. Like, is he known as, like, a difficult guy to work with? Or is it kind of like, does he not even see you as someone he's really working with? No, he's actually excellent.

He's very professional. If you call him and ask to talk to him he will almost always return your call okay i'll ask him like on the deadline day i was working on that uh but i had i was working on the peugeot deal i heard he was going to the islanders and i wrote him a note it was like it was like i was pretty sure he was going to new york but i didn't nail it down like 100 so i actually texted him i said i know how much you love these texts, but I figure I'd just ask. I never got a response. And there have been times I asked him questions like that.

He goes, why would you even ask me the question? But other than that, if you're talking about hockey or his team or other things like that, always, he always returns call and always gives you a good answer. And when he ran the Devils, I remember covering that team, guys always talked. They were always available. We always had a chance to talk to him. So it just doesn't feed you any rumors or anything you don't want to know.

So I was really surprised when I saw the Connor McDavid documentary. Basically what happened, the whole story, it was shocking to kind of see that there was a chance he would never be the same. Did people have that around here? Because I couldn't believe something like that would stay quiet all summer. And that's out of respect for somebody's health? Or do you actually not know if anyone even knew what was going on? No, there were a lot of rumors it was really bad.

There were a lot of rumors it was really bad. So last year in the playoffs, we got a tip that he was going for a second opinion because it was worse than the Oilers initially thought it was. And I remember the Oilers just would not help on this one. I wasn't even mad. I understood. Well, fuck, they wouldn't even tell the guy who was coming in his new gm right like that that's pretty tight-lipped they they wouldn't they wouldn't help but i got it and the agent really wouldn't help but when i

spoke to him jeff jackson he was obviously not pleased that we knew about it so we reported it during one of the playoff games and i heard that there were certain people in mcdavid's family who were very angry it got out so they locked it down even more like i didn't know they actually went for a third opinion till i heard about the documentary like that's how much they locked it down and the other thing that happens around is that it's the summer so we're not a lot us, we, like, our deal is pretty simple. From Labor Day to Canada Day, I'm on call. So the thing that Rodgers...

You must get wrecked when that's easy. So Rodgers is good about, in the summer, you don't have to do anything. And plus, like, I'd like to be married still and not get the 50% escrow, so you have to pay attention to your wife. So a lot of us aren't following as much, but there were rumors in the summer it was really bad.

But McDavid, first of all, was determined to make it work. And I think that shows how much the NHL is changing. Like 10 years ago, would there have been a documentary on a player like that there's only one i know of steve eiserman did one with the cooperation of the red wings after 2002 where he basically won a gold medal on a stanley cup on one leg and i think they wanted to talk about his surgery because it was revolutionary at the time other than that i don't know anyone who's done it. And that's where we're going. That was the finals I got to attend because they bring the top five.

Oh, 2002 was your draft. Yeah, right. It was myself, Upshaw, Leupold, Bollmeister, and Rick Nash, I think. Either way, we went down and got to meet the teams after pregame skate. Eichmann didn't skate. He was sitting there. I've never seen somebody's leg look like so mangled ice everywhere he was limping around like an old man and then he was getting shot up for the games and they won it that year that was they dominated carolina and i just remember thinking like oh my god this is what this guy's

going through and you're feeling great as a young as a young guy just that just reminded me of that story sean avery i, said on your podcast, it was the most incredible thing he'd seen was that Iserman that year. That was that Paul Maurice team, right? Carolina, his first time in the Cup. Yeah, he was young then. Yeah, he was like 28 when he was the first time he was head coach. Yeah, I don't know if he was 28, but he looked 58.

That's what coaching does to you. I want to ask, are there any teams that don't speak to or any executives that are on the NC list? Yes, there are some. There are some guys who really... I'm not asking you to name the teams. No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

But there are some guys. They just don't like you? Well, they hate that I get information, right? So, like, one of the GMs who I got along with the best... It's like you're in the mob or something. I know. It's like one of the GMs I got along with the best. He says that the worst thing about it is what you do to our dressing room.

Like, especially in the social media era. Like, the players are always on Twitter. Like, especially around the deadline. Like, Troy Stetcher in Vancouver talked about how one of his buddies fell for a fake Twitter account last week that he'd been traded. So he says you don't realize the effect that what you do and the social media has on our rooms. And that's what they hate. So when something gets out that they can't control, and if it's bad, if it's false, it's bad. But even if it's true, it's bad it's it's bad but even if it's true yeah it's bad i would

say there are some guys who get really upset that's always been out there though it's just the new form of it yeah i mean it's always been that was always in the papers before and everyone always read the papers now it's just but you could insulate yourself a bit more back then it's harder and the other thing too is it's all right and it's always harder on the wives or the parents right right yeah like there was one player i tell this story there was one time i was asked to speak to a bunch of young players and they talked about advice and i said and one story i told was at the nhl media event a few years ago i walked by one particular player and i said, hey, how you doing? And he goes, I know what you guys say about me on TV. And I was like, what?

I was like, a player said that? Yeah, yeah. I go, what? What did I say? And that's the first thing I was like, what did I say? Because I could have said something. And he goes, my family tells me what you guys say about me. And I said, stop right there.

I said, look, I don't like to tell anybody what to do because I don't like anybody telling me what to do. But you cannot let your family say to you, this is what's said on TV. Because I guarantee to you, they're making it 20 times worse. Oh, for sure. Than what was actually said.

Like very rarely is it as bad as the family makes it out. So I told him, you have, the other thing i said to him was i said i said like why do you i said why do you care like i said how much money you're making this year and he was in the very high end of the millions and i go you know you got a good social life he goes oh yeah great social life i said what do you do for a living he looks at me he goes what do you mean i go what do you do for a living he goes i play hockey i go do you like to play hockey he He looks at me and goes, what do you mean? I go, what do you do for a living? He goes, I play hockey. I go, do you like to play hockey? He goes, it's the best.

So I said, let me get this straight. You're playing hockey. You're making millions. You can date anybody who you want to date, and you're worried about what we're saying about you on television? Like, what's wrong with this picture? Fair enough. And he came up to me later in the year, and he said, wow,

that was really good for me to hear. But I think that's the thing. There's probably guys who listen to this podcast who will hear you say that and it'll change their whole mind. You know what? Biz, you and I have talked about this. When I got to Hockey Night in Canada, I noticed that I was getting praised or ripped in newspaper columns

more than I ever had been. And I was like, this is weird like all of a sudden people are really paying attention yeah and someone said to me for the life of me i can't remember who it was he said you're on hockey night in canada now like everybody's watching what you're doing so you guys here you've created a monster everybody's watching what you guys are doing so you're going to get more praise and criticism than ever so you've got to limit the amount of people you really pay attention to and i tell that to young journalism some of it's hard some of these dudes with check marks coming after us calling me like

racist and shit i'm like what the fuck i tell this to young uh students now, male, female, whatever, you know, I say it all. People come after you on Twitter. It shouldn't happen, but it does. Okay? It gets very personal. It shouldn't happen, but it does. You're going to have to live with it. Yeah.

Especially the bigger you get. So I always say have a small group. Like pick the people who really matter to you and you listen to them. Yeah. The women get it way worse, too, unfortunately. Yeah. And the thing is, I've spoken to... I saw a story in the Washington Post about what social media does to young girls in particular. And it's brutal.

Yeah, it's awful. But I told them, I said, guys, it's not right. It's not fair. But unfortunately, it is the way it is. So are you going to let those losers beat you? And I tell that to young... They're the reason I wake up in the morning. That's a great line.

I tell that to young men and women all the time. Don't sugarcoat it, man. Social media has made it where when I was growing up, if a kid didn't get invited to the birthday party, he didn't see it to the birthday party, he didn't see it all over every single kid's Instagram and Facebook or whatever. So now you know when you're not including things. But when you talk about guys

who basically let the media affect them, a lot of... So kids grow up, they're the star player for the most part when you make the NHL. That's like the common denominator is that kids are really good the whole way up you're never there's no one ever like talking any any nothing bad is said about you you're just dominating everyone you've never dealt with

adversity to which there's like bad things being said about you as a player or you as a person and so you're not able to handle it when you're life, everything's been sugar-coated. So I think that the quicker you can understand, I always tell biz, you're never going to please everyone. It's actually impossible. I swear because I ended up getting tortured so bad in Edmonton that it helps me get when you occasionally get ripped now on social media. And the other thing is that people don't say it to your face no these people maybe some of them would the very rare few but all these people who write stuff to you they if they met you they could i get a picture yeah paul it's so it's it's this phony like oh yeah i'm just saying is i like to attack it head on where i'm sure yeah you do i'm sure some of the media members

are like holy shit i remember crazy i'm like when I saw you do that someone comes at me I'm just gonna be like fuck you I respect the hell out of that what's that I remember I remember the first time I saw you do it I was like is this for real yeah I'm I don't give a fuck I actually said you would know I said are you sure you want to do this and you said you said oh this is me and i'm like okay if that's you that's you and i'm not apologetic for it i'm not well now now it's to the point now i've been able to like self-made like we can do the podcast and obviously my boss is down with how i operate because he's he's pretty much at the extreme level of that i wouldn't say i'm exactly where he is but i i think i'm on the right side of shit.

If you want to come at me for my thinking, I'm going to tell you to go fuck yourself. Elliot, I got to bring this up. Every time we have you on or I'm looking you up, I have to Google your name. Have you ever met another Elliot who spells the name exactly the way you do? No. Two L's, two T's, and then two E's. No. Somebody once said, that's going to be your legacy.

A bunch of kids spelling Elliot like that. I go, wow, that's a great legacy. I can't wait until that's on my team adding letters making uniforms more expensive no i've never day by day seen that no never no i mean it makes it's a unique different it's unique that's for sure yeah we already were talking about the islanders but biz and i were chatting one day he he brought up maybe some sort of thing with Barzal and Trotz and whatever. People gave him shit. And then he ends up getting benched a couple months later.

But so many people want to know, like, that contract this summer, they can't lose him, right? And he's going to want a lot of money. Well, I do believe the offer sheets will come. Really? Thank you, Elliot. Thank you. Wow. And the reason I do is because Really? Thank you, Elliot. Thank you. Wow.

And the reason I do is because it's so hard to find good players now. That good, too. We're going to another team, 32. And also, you know, like the owners, like there's more analytics people who are starting to work for teams, and they believe in it because they say look if if like if you there's a lot of studies on the draft and they're actually pretty odds of those hitting yes and basically in the nhl draft takes a huge drop after pick number two i thought you're gonna

say seven no two historically the draft goes like this. One, two, three. Look at all the threes recently where you're like, fuck. Yes. Like, you'd be – if you actually sat down and went through – I'm fit and I'm sitting with my legs crossed. The best number five pick overall. That's right. So, like, there are a lot of people who say that it's worth doing it.

You know, I had some people who said to me, like, you know, if the Shea Weber one got matched, every single one is getting matched. But I'll tell you this. The Toronto Maple Leafs 100% believed

that if Austin Matthews got to July 1st last year, Arizona was going to offer Shea to him seven years at the max. Would have made sense. And I've looked at it it and people around the league have told me they believe that to be the case columbus wanted to offer sheet mitch marner but he wouldn't sign for seven years he wanted to do three or four so columbus said that's ballsy yes columbus said no we're not we're not doing that. We're all in it. How about the fucking stones on the Coyotes, baby?

Oh, my God. Tell me more. They were going to make the playoffs. Tell me more, Elliot. Nobody has said to me that's false. I think the Leafs believed it. I think the Coyotes were going to do it. And I think the league knew it.

So, you know, the attitude is moving. The one thing that's interesting about – the whole thing that fascinates me about Barzal is everybody always says if Lou Lamorello was still the GM in Toronto, Toronto's negotiations wouldn't have played out that way. I would completely agree. Four forwards wouldn't be making 40. They were a little soft.

Okay. I thought they caved in. way i would completely agree four forwards wouldn't be making 40 a little soft okay i thought they caved in so we're gonna find out what's gonna happen here right if it gets to he's getting a test july 1st yeah no because number one is barzell unhappy at all oh i i wouldn't say that i don't know is you have this you have this very unique talent and a kid who thrives for offense. He gets joy of getting points, right? Who doesn't? Other organizations where they value it the same way he does, whereas they're willing to let it ride.

Tampa, for instance, they clearly play a different pace and open things up a little bit more than some teams do, right? He wants to go there and be free. That's my opinion. Now, Trotz coaches a certain way. It didn't work for a long time. He ends up turning that group around in Washington. Now his theory has been proved right.

Well, of course, he's going to be stubborn in the way he coaches his team because it's worked before. He's won a championship. But he also had – And also look how much they improved last year when nobody thought they were going to be there. Nobody thought they were going to round two last year. No. And they're redoing it. I didn't think they'd redo it this year.

But it's hard because now this kid's like, well, you guys are getting team-friendly. They're pretty – they don't pay very high, right? Well, they got, you know what? I don't know if I agree with that, but they got good deals. Like, Nelson's is a good deal. Sure. You know, like, Lee is a very fair, reasonable deal.

Nobody, but nobody's going, like, Lamorello, like, guys always felt, you know, the one guy who chafed was Niedermeyer, right? But in New Jersey, Brodeur could have made a lot more away from New Jersey. Like a lot of guys could have. I just can't see why a guy is going to be like, okay, I'm putting up less points because of a system that I'm being forced to play where it doesn't truly make me happy as a hockey player,

and now that's going to be used against me to not make more money. Ouchie. I don't know if that to be used against me to not make more money ouchy i i don't know if that'll be used against you know biz i don't know if that'll be used against him to make less money i think what's going to happen is knowing lula amorello he's going to say to him we're going to pay you really well but we're going to do it in a team structure and you're not going to get paid here necessarily what and maybe let's see and let's see how and i'm saying i would not fault him for being like man i just want to go somewhere where they're

going to like me for the way i kind of want to play not saying it's the right way but we'll so we'll find out we'll find out it's going to come down to if kids got to show some balls to hold out right takes a lot so you have to have you have to have a lot of belief in yourself you also have to have your agent being honest with you and what's going on and even any agent in the world is going to say at some point you're going to get it don't worry man if your team's doing well in a month two months into the year and you're 20 years old you're not going to play a full year so maybe lula amarello if he was in toronto would have just stood firm and like what would have happened i mean with matthews you're saying that's a little different situation but marner i it is weird to see 40 million to four guys there up front it's it's definitely it's definitely different like i calculated the in

the cap era uh which team had the greatest percentage of four players of their cap? And it was Pittsburgh, one of the years, 16 or 17. And it was something like 35%. And this would beat it. Toronto. It would. It would beat it.

Now, the one thing is, there's going to be a cap jump, but it might not be for two more years when Seattle gets in and the new U.S. It'll be pretty big, right? The new U.S. TV deals. They're very hopeful. So that might be where Toronto's window even opens more.

We'll see. Yeah, because when we had Sid on, he said, you know, taking less doesn't work unless everybody does it. And when you look at Boston, their top line, those guys collectively making $19 million is a joke. And then it's like, I mean, do you think they can actually line, those guys collectively making $19 million is a joke. And then it's like, I mean, do you think they can actually win with paying four forwards, $40 million? It just doesn't seem like you can build around that.

Well, now I think they're now realizing that they've got to fix their blue line. Yes. Don't worry, Shanahan likes your podcast. I've got to ask you about Olympics. My whole thing is I don't know the number that the Olympics makes from having the NHL players and how much they benefit from it financially. Do you think that if it's a large number, that part of the holdout should be the fact that the owners

should be seeing some of this money considering their assets are being used in order to go make another organization a lot more money. You know, in Sochi, I always believe it was the Russian government that paid it because they paid the travel and the insurance cost. It was somewhere around $14 to $16 million. I've always believed that was the Russian government that paid it because they wanted those guys there. They wanted the hockey players there. In South Korea, they didn't have the same attachment.

And the IOC wouldn't give them the money, so they didn't go. That's why they didn't go. I didn't like it, but I understood it. I didn't like that they didn't go, but I understood. The NHL and the players should not lose money to go to the Olympics. No, it's a joke. I don't like it, but I understand it. First of all, they have to go to China because they've got to get into China.

But number two, now the IOC has said, we're going to take care of this. I think what they realized is that their hockey tournament wasn't as good. The Germany getting to the final is a great story, but it's not a TV draw. No. And NBC wants the best players there. They want the best teams there. Look, if the IOC steps up and says, we're going to pay, the money's going to get done.

There's no way the league knows they will face an avalanche of criticism if they don't go after these costs are paid for. It won't be good for them. They're going to go. They're going to go, I think. We'll grind our way there, but it's going to happen. All right? Yeah, it feels like, I mean, the Dream Team back in 92, NBA,

that was such a huge leap for them, and it feels like if the NHL could get something like that because it feels like it's just on that cusp of being to that next level. And we just can't get there. They like it. R.A. in North America. Like if it's Salt Lake, 100%, Vancouver, 100%. They're not crazy about elsewhere.

But you know what? It's time. Like this might be the only time you can get Crosby and McDavid against Matthews and Kane. Yeah. You have to have it. Absolutely. You have to have it. Ovechkin, now one last ride

against these guys. Yeah, because he's never gotten an Olympic goal. He's got his cup. Yeah, yeah. Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, McDavid, Matthews, Kane. I agree. It is time. You have to do it yeah all right

wow Jesus Christ Elliot Yossi Timo Meyer don't come to the I can't wait to get this I better be invited to the pink

Whitney suite in Beijing I got imagine can you imagine I'll just be getting a massage down in Ontario Ryan like you guys are going to come in April April first April first not an April Fool's Can you imagine? I'll just be getting massaged down. Nobody can afford them in Ontario, Ryan.

You guys are gouging us here. No, no, they're coming April 1st. April 1st. Not an April Fool's Day. Well, Elliot, this is awesome, man. And everyone, check out not only your column, 31 Thoughts Weekly, but also you and Jeff Merrick's podcast, same thing, 31 Thoughts. Yep.

So that's great. You do some great work, and we really appreciate you coming on and sharing some of those stories with us. Well, I appreciate you guys having me. Thanks a lot. Thanks. lot thanks it's been an honor you know guys like you should be proud you've done an incredible you built something from nothing you should be proud of what it's great we get to smoke dope and just hang out we get paid for it now it's fucking awesome now everyone i just want to say one thing first well first off two things first off thank you very much to Elliot. What a guy.

He's a great source and turned into a monster in the hockey media world. Second, I promise no more e-bug talk. Oh, actually, no. That's a lie. We got Berkey talking about it. We got Berkey. So you can fast forward to the e-bug talk with Berkey. I know that's been about a month-long thing with us,

but we have other news. And in terms of social media, Elliot Friedman is a monster on there, but there's an NHL superstar that's now done with social media. Is that correct? Yes, it is. Our friend Jack Eichel, he deleted his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Buffalo, they had six straight losses in regulation since the deadline. I'm sure there's nothing positive on their farm. Can you fucking blame them? There's got to be nothing fun about it. Go ahead, Biz. Well, actually. I'm sure there's nothing positive on there for him. Can you fucking blame him? There's got to be nothing fun about it. Go ahead, Biz. Actually, I'm going to step in here. I think for what he's provided that organization in the year he had,

and I know maybe lately it hasn't been to the caliber what he started out the season as, but he's probably exhausted from putting this fucking team on his shoulders. This is unacceptable, and it's such a shame, but if I'm him, I go have another big offseason. I come back, do exactly what he did to start the year, and if it goes the same way as it did this year and years past, I'm asking to get the fuck out of there.

I don't think he should waste another ounce of energy on that organization if that's how they're going to repay him and put players around him in order to be successful i don't think it's fair to him i think it's a waste of his talents it's really unfortunate and i'm not chirping anybody in that lineup or locker room or or even in management i'm just saying that it's gone on long enough and the fact that they gave up a fifth rounder in order to get wayne simmons at the deadline and they fucking now have lost six in a row it's a joke man like that like you're they were planning on making a little push and adding wayne simmons to the locker room and and it's gone straight downhill from there and they're just like listen from what i'm reading i've seen a little bit it's just there's there's a lot of lack of effort there and i think fans are very disgusted

by it how how far are we removed from that fan rant that we heard not too long ago oh dwayne's already jumped off his roof he's not with us any longer he ain't he like that was i feel like that was like six weeks ago and and things have gotten drastically worse so there's a lot of work there i know uh it's bottero right That's how you pronounce his last name? Jason Bottero, yeah. You know, and once again, I'm not going at him either because, you know, sometimes when you take over an organization, there's a lot of problems at the beginning.

It's tough to get back. He came in as a CAP specialist, ended up working in Pittsburgh as an assistant general manager for a little bit. And it's just been very difficult for him to turn things around and nothing's worked out but you know when you i'm not saying a fifth rounder is exactly a a lot but when you're when you're having to add new new new artillery to your fucking lineup you can't be giving away assets when you're when you're out of the hunt come come deadline time am i going crazy here well there's so many different sides to this,

and I'll start off with the fact that Eichel and Reinhardt also, they haven't been playing well the past six, seven games. I don't know if they have a point, and they've lost them all, and things have kind of gone from bad to worse there. Now, Jack Eichel still has 77 points at 67 games, so if he was reading enough social media things where people are coming at him, it ain't him.

Yeah, it's been an unfortunate run right here, but they weren't getting in the playoffs to begin with. Maybe if they had won six in a row, they'd somewhat be in the hunt. But when they got Wayne Simmons, everyone was surprised in a sense that the playoffs did not seem very likely at all, maybe a 5% chance when the deadline came. So now when Eichel struggles and you think, well, the season is definitely over and people want to blame him, dude, he's been the

one without him earlier in the year. You probably wouldn't have been out of it by December again, if they weren't already. I don't even know exactly when things went real south. But the other side of it is I've been loud and clear on this podcast about my history in terms of reading stuff online. And I was reading Hockey's Future's message board when I was 14've been loud and clear on this podcast about my history in terms of reading stuff online. And I was reading Hockey's Future's message board when I was 14 years old. And then I got to college and I was still reading U.S. college hockey message boards. Just the dumbest thing. What was I doing? And what you're doing is you're reading good things about yourself.

And then when things go sour, it's like, oh, my God. And that's why I have never ever since I I got to a couple years into Edmonton, I quit reading the mentions. I quit reading message boards. It's such a foolish waste of energy. And I don't know if Jack Eichel was. But even logging onto Twitter or Instagram and having people chirp at you, dude, it's a day ruiner.

It's not worth seeing. So the smartest guys are the guys who don't even get on social media. I know we say more players should be involved, but there's a reason Crosby's never been on. And if he is, it's a burner and he's somewhat reading things, but he's never getting mentioned by people and things, not directly to him at least. So it's a weird world when now any regular joke and let you know what he thinks about you. And because you read it, you think, oh, this guy, he has a voice. It gives everyone a voice. So if people are on you, it can make life pretty shitty. And at the same time, when you're reading it and people are being good to you, that's not real either. It's like there's never a realistic part of social media where you get

both sides to it. It's always one or the other. And because of that, it's not even worth it a lot of times. So you could see why he's getting on. I don't know why he deleted it and just maybe didn't just delete it off his phone. I think he deleted the entire, like, profile, right? Going the other way, speaking of social media, guys. Does that make sense there? Yeah. Because I kind of was all over the map.

You make a lot of sense. Transitioning out of that and staying on the social media topic, I was surprised that john totorello wasn't down with taking that selfie mid-game with the fan foley's tweet was unreal bro he got you he said that was me asking for a shift and at the olympics and that was when it went back to tortorella saying get whitney off the ice um the backstory on that was there was a game i forget who columbus was playing but some lady goes down to the where the coach stands knocks on the it was against calgary she knocks on the glass and asks john totorello to turn around mid-game and take a selfie with her and john totorello

pigeon tossed her she was devastated by this but social media left taking over and just letting her know like come on man the level of entitlement to go bother a head coach during the course of a national hockey league game to take a picture with you is borderline psychotic yeah and then the other guy come over and showed him a picture from like fucking 30 years ago or something people are fucking weirdos man let the guy fucking work you know what i mean meanwhile i Meanwhile, I had a bag over my head fucking 15 years ago staring at a coach right behind him, so I'm not really probably one to talk. Hey, listen, we got to give a huge shout-out to the state of hockey and their devotion to high school puck.

The Class AA semis on Friday had a larger attendance than six NHL games that same night. 19,899 people showed up to watch the game. This might be the event that we get asked to attend the most, the Minnesota High School Hockey Championship. You know, we'd love to do it. Logistics haven't worked out for us thus far. I think we'll get out there someday.

But it must be insane to play in front of that crowd at fucking 16 years old. And how about this beauty? Gee, we tweeted him out. Jake Casey does a nice little stop with the fucking Ogie Oglethorpe here all over the place. Business, get them on the pod. He chimes back.

I'll check my schedule. What a fucking beauty. This cocky fucker. Oh, fucking right. Typical fucking high school hockey player. So anyways, we want to give a shout out to Minnesota,

man. The fucking passion they have is unreal out there. Go ahead, Wes. I got to say that there is no other area in the United States doing it as well as Minnesota. I'm talking about the entire system of how kids grow up playing, where they play, and the fact that it is so normal there for kids to stay and play for your hometown,

and then you go to public high school, and you get to play for where you grew up up and all the kids that you're friends with. And in Massachusetts and so many other places, there's private schools, there's prep schools, Catholic schools. It's so spread out. Minnesota has this figured out to a T and they have made it where not only are they producing great players, but they're producing some of the most exciting high school hockey films you'll ever see. I mean, the Excel's packed. These kids are legends. Imagine walking around school and you just pump the OT winner in front of

20,000. You think, how do you think that kid's doing? Oh, my God. Going to high school, I was reading message boards, like, picking my nose. I can't imagine the feeling of being able to grow up in one town, play for that town your whole life. I wish it happened in Massachusetts. It doesn't, and that's coming from a private school kid.

But that state has it figured out on how to produce players and how to produce great teams and organizations you want to play for because it's within your town. There's more pride involved, I think. Not to mention the fucking hair, too. Those videos are classic. game on minnesota is this uh the youtube account there's this these famous clips of of a guy commentating over the hockey hair when these kids skate up it became a tradition where these kids would just come in with these

wacky hairstyles i don't think he's still doing it i think he's hung up the skate so to speak but uh maybe if we end up heading to minnesota to to um check out the festivities at the high school hockey event maybe he'll come out of retirement and start announcing the hairs again is i actually think he came out of retirement this year and maybe okay so he's back yeah he made one more those videos it's the whole delivery in those videos like he's just so like he sounds like he's toasted just all nonchalant, giving his fucking description.

I always use this peroxide Jesus line. He came up with that in one of his first videos. So if you haven't seen that, that's on YouTube. It's Game On Minnesota. It's the YouTube account where he posts all these hockey hair videos, so check it out. Yep. Well, a lot of these kids, they'll be off to college in the fall,

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I got to go back to the fact that I said that the Leafs might give Tampa Bay a run for their money come playoffs in the first round if they meet. Now, I feel like they play up to their competition, but they ended up going on that California road swing. They score three goals against three of the top, or three of the worst five teams in the league in San Jose, Anaheim, and L.A., a pathetic performance and probably one of the most inconsistent teams in the league. So that's if they even fucking get into playoffs.

I'd imagine they figure things out here down the stretch, but a terrible, terrible showing in California for the Leafs. Cost me a fortune. How much did you lose with? Thousands. Once they lost the San Jose game, I go, they're going to win. And the next one was Anaheim. They lost that one.

I was like, well, they're not losing to L.A. And then they got shut out. It was like I think I had a money line puck line both Anaheim and L.A. games. Dummied. Dummied. Yeah, like I said, man, Florida's knocking on their door, man. Them guys getting that third spot in the Northeast la games dummied dummied yeah like i said man florida's knocking on their door man now them guys getting that third third spot in the uh northeast or where the fucking atlantic nowadays

it's not guaranteed for sure a couple other quick notes before we wrap up here the red wings and senators fans can circle their calendars as the draft lottery is tentatively set for april 9th so they can find out where they're going to be drafting uh we just got a note from our buddy tim stapleton he wanted to let the chic Chicago area listeners know that the Blackhawks alumni are going to be playing the Chicago Fire Department March 15th, which is a week from today, Sunday, at 3.30. It's at the Fifth Third Arena. A bunch of good, outstanding Chicago alumni are supposed to be there.

Chelios, it's his event. Denny Savard, Patrick Sharp, JR, Eric Daze, Brian Noonan, and, of course, our boy Tim Stapleton. So if you're in the area, do check that out. And one other note, we want to send off congratulations to our foreign correspondent slash recurring guest, Matt Murley, and his lovely wife, Johanna. They're the proud new parents of Lily Svea Murley,

who joined us early Saturday a.m. Just over nine pounds, just under 21 inches. Everybody's healthy. And I was so happy for Matt Murles. He's so happy for the Mur. It's great. It's great. I was waiting. She was due on February 29th. He's like, of course, I'm going to have a baby on a leap year day. I got bad

luck. But no, it's a couple of days later and great to finally get the news. And last shout out. It's now Monday, so I hope everyone witnessed it last night or watched. But St. Louis, Chicago, dude, International Women's Day is a pretty incredible move by NBC Sports. I got to give them a little shout-out. We've been hard on them over the Roenick stuff,

but they had an all-women's broadcast. So it was Catherine Tappan and Jen Botterill in studio, and then Kate Scott, A.J. Malesko, and Kendall Coyne calling the game. So my wife, who knows nothing about hockey, even said, I think she heard it on TV, wow, no other sport's ever done that. So you've got to give the NHL also some credit in that. Pretty cool that you're seeing that go down, and now we don't know how it's going to go.

But let's say I hope it went well. All right, gang. Biz, any final thoughts or notes before we shove it off? All right. Everybody, have a fantastic week out there, and we'll see you back here Thursday. Love you, boys. As always, we want to send a big thanks to our awesome sponsors. Big thanks to everybody over at New Amsterdam Vodka and Pink Whitney.

Also, a big thanks to our new sponsor, MeUndies. Hopefully, you folks will check them out. They're super comfy, and they're nice and original. Also, a big thanks to everybody over at Dude Wipes. They keep us nice and fresh, especially in these days of extended hygiene. And a big thank you to our folks over at Earnest. If you're looking to refi your student loan, check them out. Have a great week, everybody.