The Athletic Hockey Show - Andrew Brunette's North Star guides him to the Predators, Ivan Provorov traded to Columbus and Panthers must win game 3 in Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

On the roundtable, Rob, Pizzo, Mike Russo and Jesse Granger welcome Nashville Predators head coach Andrew Brunette. Bruno talks about the year that was behind the bench of the New Jersey Devils, and the Florida Panthers before that, and how coming full circle with Barry Trotz and David Poile, returning to the Predators to coach Nashville, is exactly where he needs to be.The roundtable discusses the Stanley Cup Final and what the Panthers need to do to get back in the series with the Vegas Golden Knights. Plus the guys dissect the three team trade involving Ivan Provorov and Cal Petersen, the Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers. Plus Anaheim announcing Greg Cronin as their new head coach, the speculation that Mike Babcock will join the Blue Jackets, the work ahead for Kyle Dubas in Pittsburgh and trade speculation revolving around Connor Hellebuyck and Alex DeBrincat. Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowHead to rhone.com/NHLSHOW and use promo code NHLSHOW to save 20% off your entire order.To get 15% off go to mudwtr.com/hockeyshow to support the show and use code HOCKEYSHOW for 15% off Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the athletic hockey show. Wednesday Roundtable edition. I am Rob Beasel from CBC Sports, joined as always. By my line mates, Mike Russo and Jesse Granger, both in Florida. We're all on the same time zone, guys. That doesn't happen very often.

And I know it's a hockey show, but I do want to mention this. People probably know this. We're on Zoom. And about two minutes before our show started, I see Jesse pick up his phone, pump his fist. He's all excited because he's going to a basketball game tonight. As a big Denver Nuggets fan, that's got to be good to score a ticket to an NBA finals game.

Yes, sir. Indeed. I grew up in Colorado Springs just south of Denver. Been a Nuggets fan my whole life. We have never made the NBA finals ever and probably never will again. So I just happened to be covering a team that's playing their final series in the same City as the Nuggets are playing the NBA finals, I figure the stars align like that. There's no way I can not go to the game.

So I'll be enjoying myself some basketball tonight. Hopefully, Yokic and the Nuggets pull it out. You didn't get a ticket for Russo. No, but most of us is going to be sitting there. More than welcome if he wants to shell out for one of those NBA finals tickets himself. Yeah, yeah. I'll figure out something to do down there. I'll be actually heading down there to enjoy some of the festivities.

But, you know, what a time to be in South Florida. I mean, everybody knows. I was born in New York, but I grew up here, moved here when I was 12, lived here until age 31. We're for the local newspaper here, the Sunscental, the one that's in the county that the Panthers are playing. And for this market, you know, I'm coming from Minnesota where it's just a skewed market. They've gone essentially the longest out of any market in all of pro sports without any sort of champion. I haven't won a championship since 91, 117 straight seasons of pro sports without a championship. And starting tonight, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, every other day.

There is a heat or pantherous game in a championship. What a time to be alive in South Florida. And then right before the show, they signed Messi on the freaking MLS team. Like, this is the place to be. It absolutely is. And that's where you guys are. And I'm not. But that's why we have the power of Zoom to do a show.

like this. We got obviously a whole bunch of to get to guys. We're obviously going to go through what we've seen so far through two games of the Stanley Cup final. A lot of news this week. Coaching changes. GM news and a big trade as well. We'll talk to talk about that. And also, we're going to talk to the new head coach of the Nashville Predators. Russo and I had a chance to speak to Andrew Burnett. So we'll play you that in the second half of the show. But guys,

it's the Stanley Cup final. We got to start there. two games in we've seen a lot a ridiculous save probably the best i've ever seen in a Stanley Cup final game so much so that in a shocking turn of events jesse wrote an entire piece on it uh we've seen some crazy hits debatable hits uh we've seen bobrowski kind of look like a normal human being and we've seen the Vegas golden nights jump out to a pretty convincing two nothing seriously as the series shifts as we mentioned to florida jessie your thoughts on uh what we you've seen so far through two games of the Stanley Cup final? Yeah, I mean, the Golden Knights are playing really, really well. And the Panthers haven't found their game yet, but I think they're

probably going to here in these next couple games. So I think the Golden Knights, if they're going to keep winning, they're going to have to play a lot better than they did the first two games, but they deserve a lot of credit for finding their game quicker. You hear it all the time, like the team that finds their game first ends up winning the series. And so far, it's been Vegas. They have been faster. They've been harder on pucks. They've been the stronger team. And like, that's to me what stood out in game two was in game one. I thought it was pretty back and forth. Vegas got the saves. Florida didn't. And Vegas ends up winning. I thought to me it looked like the Panthers came out with a very intentional message sending start to that game two, where

Goudis is throwing hits. The Panthers were really throwing their bodies around. And they were kind of, in my opinion, trying to say, look, we're going to push this team around and that's how we're going to win the series. And the Golden Knights responded really well. Ivan Barbashev lands a couple big hits. The reverse hit in the corner that ended up ending Goudis's night. I thought Vegas returned that serve as well as they possibly could in terms of the physicality. And that's why they ended up running away with that game. Yeah, I am, you know, like I still, like I know this is how Florida has played all year long, but I don't look at that team as being overly big, overly physical and one that's going to intimidate you out of the rink.

You know, obviously they have some hard-nosed players, you know, guys like Goudis and Lomburg and San Bernard as we know and things like that. But I just don't think this Vegas team is one you can push around. They got their, they got some big guys themselves. And one of the biggest ones, Rocco Goudas surely learned, is Ivan Barboshev. And it's not like, you know, from even just a size standpoint. That guy plays hard. He plays competitive.

You know, we saw that in the 2018 Stanley Cup final. We saw that last year when St. Louis beat Minnesota in the first round and the way that Barbashev was throwing hits and things like that. I don't think you could do that to this team. They came out with such a unbelievable pace the other night, Vegas, that there was just no way you were even going to catch him to hit. And they've just got to play hockey. And look, this series isn't over. we saw Dallas, you know, fall down three games and figure out a way to make the series. So this isn't over yet.

We'll see if Florida could figure out a way to hold serve here at home. But I do have to say to your original point, Rob, not to give some inside trading details here, but Jesse Granger and myself, Pierre LeBron and our editors had a meeting right before the Stanley Cup final. And Jesse on there was talking about all the stories that he had in the can that he was working on. He goes, he says in this meeting, he goes, basically I got this great Aden Hill piece just waiting to be written. I just need that one signature save. And then freaking he makes the save of his life. Yeah.

And I look at Jesse during the game. I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? And then the other thing that he says during the freaking meeting is he goes, I really need, I have this great, really, you know, Nick Hague and Nick, Zach White Cloud feature that's, you know, being worked on. I kind of just need White Cloud to have a really good game. Of course, the winning goal. Like, that stuff does not happen usually as sports writers.

Like usually, usually if you're working on something, the guy that you're working, working on like breaks his femur or something. Yeah, you got to throw the paper away. Yeah. And Jesse, it's unbelievable. Just watching them work this series, but also the way those stars aligned, it was pretty freaking cool. So later on in the show, when I ask you what you're working on, whatever you're working

on is something we should be betting on, you know what I mean? Like, I'm working on a great piece on this guy. All right. Game winning goal. That's pretty crazy because that save. I watched that game with a bunch of friends. We're actually away at a cottage and joined ourselves. and I've never heard all my friends all in unison.

Just, oh, it was, it's one of those saves that you wrote about it. You talked about, you know, he's been doing yoga during COVID. And maybe that has a lot to do with it. But we're going to talk about that, say, five, ten years from now. It's going to be, remember the Aden Hill save. And I'm just, you know, I'm wondering where you guys put it as far as all time, all time moments is from a goaltender because to me, I've watched. it 200 times since that day because it just blows my mind where you kind of said it in your

piece, Jesse, strategy or what did you you said, you know, goaltending, you know, technique. There's the word I'm looking for. Went out the window. And he's just like, I can't let this puck go in the net. I think before we can like rank it or or compare it with historical, we have to find out how this story ends. like if if the Golden Knights win this Stanley Cup and Aden Hill continues playing like this and he wins the Khan Smyth,

I think this is absolutely top three moment, maybe the greatest save in Stanley Cup final history. It's definitely in the top five. But they have to finish the story first. If the Florida Panthers win the next four games, yeah, we'll remember that save, but it doesn't go up there with like, Holtby is the one that everyone wants to compare it to

because it happened in the exact same spot. Not just in the same arena, the same city. It was literally the same crease, the same spot on the crease. Braden Holby reached his paddle across and robbed Alex Tuck. And that was game two of the 18 Cup final. And the Golden Knights were up one nothing in the series. And the game was tied late. And that would have put Vegas up in that game and likely up two nothing in the series.

Instead, Washington wins the next four games and it's over. So if Washington doesn't finish that series off, we don't really remember that Holby saying. Like if Vegas wins that series, nobody really cares about that whole B-save. So for me to rank Hill save, we have to see how this story ends. But if he and the Golden Knights finish the story, it's absolutely one of the greatest saves in Stanley Cup final history. So the turning point, too, turning point time-wise, like, it really does come down to the fact that that could be why they win this series.

Yeah. Although, I mean, Florida tied the game up in the same game, right? Yeah. So, I mean, that would be my only thing about it. It's like it's hard to you're not really, you know, put context to it. It's still game one. It's like all the people that were like, you know, freaking out that Toronto might have scored that one goal in the game against, you know, Florida. Like, first of all, they eventually tied it and still lost in overtime.

And still, it was in game five where they had, you know, where they were down three one. It wasn't like this like big, like, you know, thing that like stole them a freaking ability to be in this series. And I think same thing there. It's still game one. It's, you know, Oh, stop being such a cramagin and just enjoy the save. I'm just saying to say it's the best ever.

Like, you know, like when I think of signature saves, I think of 2009, Game 7 at, you know, Joe Lewis Arena. And if Flurry doesn't make that save on Nicholas Lichten,

they might not win the cup because that game's going to overtime. You know, that to me is a signature, like, you know, all time great save. That literally was a cup saving save. And so this still,

to me, is a, you know, it was a great save. In the moment, the Flurry save, like, if you, if you, if you factor in that it's the last seconds of game seven, but the actual save itself was, like, it was a very good save, but not. It was kind of ugly. It threw his chest. It was it was vintage, it was vintage flurry, right? Reaction after maybe overplaying, you know?

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. The Hill one was pretty insane. On the other end, I got to ask you about Wabrowski, because it's amazing how we, we put someone on such a pedestal, you know, rightfully so. And then they struggle for two games. And immediately the question of Paul Maurice after game two is, is Bobrovsky getting the start on game three?

And Paul Maurice has been really pumping his tires saying we believe we're going to see the Bobrovsky we need in game number three. Are you surprised to see him struggle a little bit the way he has? He's a lot nine goals in these two games, got yanked in one of them, or eight goals, excuse me, two games, got pulled in game two. surprised to see this, or is this one of those things where we are in the Stanley Cup finals, and he's played a lot of hockey. Bruce, I'll start with you. Yeah, you know, I mean, it is surprising just because he's been so good and so much talk coming into the series was about

Khan Smyth, and now that's no longer the talk. And, you know, I thought it was a little odd the questions the other night about whether or not he was going to start game three. I mean, he's starting game three. It's not going to be Alex Lyon, but, you know, look, we don't have the context of covering Florida all year where, you know, really the last couple years where he has struggled marketably and that, you know, in a must-win games in Washington down the stretch, they're starting Alex Lyon and not Bobrovsky. So that's probably the context of the question there, but I think right now it would be foolish to make that change. Now if he goes out tomorrow night and gets pulled again, now it's, it becomes a talker and it definitely becomes an issue.

I don't think he's been horrible at all this series, but he's definitely not, he's getting out played by Aden Hill. There's no doubt about that. And, you know, Florida's just out to do a better job as as Paul Maurice said the other night. I mean, it's like they're just there, but they're not there in terms of blocking shots. I mean, the other night, they had 11 block shots. That is not enough when you're just giving up unblocked shots constantly to, to Brobowski. He's getting screened on goals. He's getting screened on plays that he's actually making saves on. Florida's just got to commit themselves to being better. And I think if there was any concern that I would have right now with Florida, it's not so much Bobrofsky. It's so much that thinning blue line. You know,

Goudis is clearly, you know, injured. You know, Goudis, like, Josh Meher is a really good defenseman if he's the supporter being supported on his defense bear. When he's the one now that is kind of the guy that has to lead that defense bear, it's a problem. You know, Casey Fitzgerald was obviously over his head the other night. They just seem to be a suddenly, a Eklad has not had a good series at all so far. Their blue line has to be much, much better in front of Bob. Yeah, I agree with pretty much all of what Michael just said.

I think Aiden Hills definitely outplayed him. And if you're Bobrovsky, that can't happen. If you're going to win this series, you have got to be the better goalie. And the other part that Michael mentioned about blocked shots, they're coming so close. And like, as a terrible beer league goalie, I know what it's like to have the shot almost blocked and get through. It's a goal. Like, you can't read the release. You'd almost rather your player not go for the blocks.

Get out of the way. see the shot. The worst thing you can do as a defenseman, and it's, and it's such a tough line, right? Because you want to block the shot. You're within centimeters of blocking it. But if you don't block it, if you go for that block and you don't get it, your goalie has no chance, especially when it's in tight. The Nick Waw goal is the best example, but it's happened over and over and over in these two games. The Waw one, he's on the doorstep, basically. I mean, he's like six, seven feet in front of Vovrovsky. And I forgot which defenseman it was, but he like knelt down and put his whole body in front of it to try to get it, and Waugh shoots it around him, and Bovrovsky

didn't even move. He's still standing on his skates when the puck goes in because he couldn't see the release. So it's such a tough, like, tight rope line to walk for the defenseman. Like, you want to block the shot, but if you go for it, you've got to block it. And if you don't, your goal is going to be in trouble. And that has happened a shocking number of times in this series. Like, if you go back and look at all the goals, Bovrovsky's let up, a lot of them are coming from just missed blocks that he didn't get to see the release on or got tipped. So he needs to be better, but like Michael said, I think it's more on the Panthers defense to not put him in those spots because if you continue putting him in those spots,

it doesn't matter how good he is. If you can't see the release, you're not going to stop many pucks unless they hit you. Two more things before we move on to some of the big news from the week. Number one, the balance scoring we've seen from this Vegas team has been, ridiculous. They set an NHL record, nine different goal scores through the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals. It's never been done. 12 different Vegas skaters have at least one point in game number two. You know, Jess, you say this all the time. You know, I'd be lying if I told you I watched all 82 Vegas games this year, especially because of the time zone. But is this something

that we've seen throughout the entire year? I know we love to give the Ikels and the Marsha shows all the credit. But it's really at a point right now where anybody could score for this team. Yeah, I mean, it's, that's been the difference between this team and the, the previous playoff runs that ended short is they're getting scoring up and down the lineup. And it's, like you said, it's been, this, this isn't something new. This team didn't have an elite goal score in the regular season. I mean, you look at some of the other teams, but you look at Edmonton, the points their guys put up. I mean, Jack Ica led this team with 66 points this season.

That's a, that's a good season, but that's nothing. and special offensively. But the difference is, we've got nine guys with at least 35 points. They've got 10 guys with at least 30 points. They have gotten this type of scoring up and down the lineup all season long. Their fourth line, guys like Nick Waugh, William Carrier, had a career year offensively. And then the other part of it is you look at the way Bruce Cassidy has built this lineup, and they have three lines that you could argue are their top line.

I mean, like the Eichol-Marsha-Barbachev line is technically the top line. It's, they're, they take line rushes first. But William Carlson, Riley Smith, and Michael Amadio have played the toughest minutes of any line. They've matched up against opposing top lines. Oh, and then the third line is Mark Stone, Chandler-Stevenson. Are you kidding me? Like, and Brett Howden, who scored two goals the other night. Like, you could argue any of those three lines are their top line.

And when you build your roster that way, Cassidy has kind of used two anchors on each line. and then put them with a third guy that probably isn't a top line guy, but with those two can pitch in and make the contributions you need. So I think it's partially, they've got really good players, a lot of them. And then I think the other thing is the way Bruce Cassidy has constructed this lineup and spread the talent throughout those three lines, and then you've got kind of an identity fourth line that likes to check and can chip in some goals too.

And you end up with a team that is really, really tough to match. match up with. I mean, it's happened in every round. Edmonton and Winnipeg just could not deal with the depth. I thought Dallas was going to be a much bigger test because they've got a lot better forward depth. And they couldn't out. There was one game where their depth outplayed Vegas and Bruce Cassidy challenged his sixth line and his bottom six. And then they come out and have the best game of their season to close the series out in game six. So this depth has has come through for them all season long. It's not surprising. It's coming through here in the cup final. Yeah, Michael Amadio must make a lot of people in this NHL absolutely freaking sick.

I mean, Ottawa, Toronto, L.A., just dumped, you know, thrown away, waivers. You know, it's just, and then you look at him, he scores, what, 15 or 16 goals in the regular season. He has nine points in the playoffs, scores in the Stanley Cup final. I mean, to Jesse's point on depth, can we rave a little bit about Jonathan Marshall, so please? I mean, this guy, I mean, you know, Kelly McCriman said it at the beginning of this series. This guy just always finds a way to seize the moment in big games. And obviously he had at least offensively, production-wise, a very slow start to his postseason. But right now, him and Aiden Hill are neck-and-neck if Vegas wins a series for the cons might.

This guy has got 12 goals in his last 12 games. He gets cross-checked in the face the other day, just comes back, freaking scores on the power play. Lombard comes after him later in the game. Marshesos is miced up. He tells him you're not worth it, little man. Jonathan Marshalo is calling somebody a little man. Okay? He's a little fella.

I mean, that's got to just drive you freaking crazy. This guy is just such an absolute stud every single postseason for this team. And, you know, it's impressive. There's a reason why, you know, there were six guys left in that or an inaugural team. And I think there's a reason why they've picked certain guys. William Carlson's got 10 or 11 goals. This is supposed to be their now checking center. It's just, it's crazy.

Che Theodore's had a tough playoff. What's he do the other night? It's an brilliant goal. I mean, it's just, they are rolling right now. And last thing on this here is before we move on to the big news of the week, and your answers will dictate how long we spend on this. If we're all in agreement, we'll move right on. Matthew Cichickett on Jack Eichael, clean or dirty?

Clean. I go clean. Jesse? Like Jack Eichol said, it was clean hit. it was partially my fault. I need to keep my head up. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. But it feels like it's still lingering with that big question mark. And I don't know if that's just what we've become in hockey where every hit needs to be dissected a million different ways and in slow motion.

But if you look, Jack Eichl, toe picks, his head's down. And to me, there's no predatory type thing going on with Kachuk where he's trying to hit someone in the head. Let's move on. Clean hit. All right, boys, some news that came out this week. This one came out yesterday. We don't ordinarily talk about a big three-team trade during the Stanley Cup final, but we saw one, Columbus, Philly, in L.A., and in the end, Ivan Proveroff, who we talked about at length earlier on this season, is now in Columbus.

Cal Peterson, Sean Walker, a couple of picks heading to Philadelphia. Kings freed up some cap space. They also took 30% of Proveroff's contract. according to Chris Johnson, maybe doing that to sign Gavrikov. Your thoughts on the three-team trade. Russo, we begin with you. Yeah, first of all, start of the,

you know, the flyers are now definitely going into rebuild mode. We'll see if Cal Peterson can reestablish himself. But this is sort of the beginning. You know, they've tried to trade Proveroff a couple times. We were hearing that last year. And Columbus was one of the teams that had a lot of interest in him. We'll see if he

reestablishes himself. This is a guy that scored, what, 17 goals four or five years ago, and it's just been downhill ever since. And in terms of, you know, what's going on in L.A., I mean, again, I was in Columbus the night that the Gavrochoff trade happened. Actually, it was the Orlov trade. Everything got screwed up. If you remember, Gavikov had to sit out forever. And the irony that, again, that this all happens with L.A. involved and the whole purpose of this to sign the Columbus player. And they get Proverroff. They're essentially replacing Proverroft with, you know, Gavercov with Proveroff. They gave Gavac to L.A. And then they make this trade to have them take some of the salary for Proverrof so they could, sign Gavirc. Like, you know, try to explain all that. I don't know if I just did it well. You know, which really confused the hell of me either in the last session.

You know what I mean? I mean, isn't it funny that they essentially are retaining them salaries for Columbus type proverbs so they can then open up cap space to get Cavarcoff. Gavikov is interesting to me because, you know, he's a shutdown defenseman. You know, I haven't seen a ton of them. But clearly the interesting part here is that they're trying to create cap space to sign them. But I get the impression that he only wants to sign for a couple of years.

there and then sort of bet on himself. So we'll see what happens here in terms of term, but I expect the Gavri Kappel got signed at some point here. Yeah, for me, it's interesting how much they got back for Prograw. Because they, I mean, they got a lot of draft capital back for him. And it's, it's one of those things where it's tough to, it's tough to judge, like, I don't watch the flyers every night. Why in the hell would I?

It's tough to judge a defenseman on a bad team like that without watching them every night and seeing what, what they're going, because like his numbers, like you mentioned, Michael are awful. I mean, he, you said, he had the 17 goal season as like a 21 year old way back. A couple seasons later, he had 13 goals in 2019, 20. I think that was the bubble year when the Flyers kind of had that breakout and everyone thought that that young core was going to be good. I think he got like a couple votes for the Norris that year and people thought this is going to be one of the best defensemen in the league at some point maybe. And that hasn't happened at all. I mean, the last two seasons, last year he was a minus 20 on the ice. This year he's a minus 17.

Again, it's tough to tell if that's him or if that's just a product of being a defenseman on an awful team. If he ends up being the player that Columbus hopes, they're going to be fine. But if not, I mean, like I said, when I first saw the trade, my initial thought was, wow, that's a lot to give up for Ivan Proberoff. Let's stick with Columbus because for all intents and purposes, Mike Babcock is going to be their new head coach come June 30th when his contract officially expires with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Has it worked since 2019?

Stanley Cup champion, world champion. We know his resume, two-time Olympic gold medalist, but we also know why he was fired and he's been labeled a bully. He's got some tactics that are, it's called them old school. We've debated throughout the year whether or not he should be back behind an NHL bench. It looks as though it's going to happen. Rousseau, since you giggled, we'll start with you. Well, because I agree.

I mean, he is old school and he needs to change to become new school. I mean, you know, it just, look, as a professional coach, but any coach, you got to be, you got to be growly at times as to use a term that Paul Maurice, you know, uses at times. But this is a new age, you know, you can't, it's like everybody adapted. And I'm sure there's tons and tons of stories that we don't know about with the other, with the other 31 coaches in this league, 32 coaches and leave it. It's like everybody adapted and he didn't realize that this is a new time. And you just, one, you can't treat players like this, but it just doesn't work. You know, and I don't, I just hope that he gets that.

Because, you know, I heard clips from a podcast that he did with Andy Strickland right after, you know, not long after he was fired or after he was fired regardless, whenever the timing was. And it didn't, he, it didn't sound to me like somebody that did learn. You know, he, I don't think that he realizes that his tactics needs to change. I'd guarantee you that he regrets the Mitch Marner stuff. That is what he did there is just stupid. And it was so Mike Keenan of him. Like I covered Keenan and he would do the same stuff, you know, put Heslius in a folding chair in the middle of the locker room and sort of undress him in front of his teammates. And for him to do that thing to Marner where he basically, you know, defiles his teammates and then goes

and reads to his time. How does you even consider that that is something appropriate to do? So I just hope that he changes. It's very shocking to me, like Columbus, like, clearly they're not worried about public opinion right now by getting Proveroff and Babcock back to back. Yeah, I was going to say that. You know, it's just, it's just, it's so funny to me that they're just, and the other thing is, sometimes things are predictable.

It's like they go to torts. Then we're going to, like, tone it down, go with Brad Larson. Now we're going to go back to Babcock. It's just, sometimes it's just, it's so strange the way the teams work. But look, the one thing that I'll give, I'll say about Yormo is that that you can't, that you've, that you've, got a, at least from a hockey perspective, is that Babcock is a great coach, and Proveroff has the ability to be a great defenseman. And that's what he's banking on. And so we'll see what

happens. As someone who covered Keenan, though, Keenan was always like that. And we've heard, we've all heard a million Keenan stories, but he had that reputation even when he was behind the bench, right? Like, we knew what Mike Keenan was. I feel like the Babcock factor was different because it almost came as a surprise to the general public. All we knew is a guy who's won at every level. And then suddenly these stories came out and suddenly the Ohan friends of the world and the Mike Commodores of the world are coming out saying, we've known this guy's been an asshole for years. You guys didn't know that. You guys, I mean, when he was a quote unquote free agent when the Leafs ended up signing him, he might have been the most sought after coach in NHL history.

I've never seen anything like that. So I think the element of kind of surprise is. what got me and what got a lot of people to find out, yeah, he wins, but at what cost. Whereas Keenan was just like, I'm going to do what I want to do. And if you don't like it, I don't give a shit. Yeah, iron Mike Keenan. But I agree with you. I, until all the Babcock stuff came out, I had no idea. You know, and so that is just, he is going to have to change.

And, you know, I'm sure he will. He's going to be asked all the questions and all that stuff. But he's got to, you know, whatever he says, he's got to then go, you know, walk the walk. Right. And that's what, like, I'm curious to see. Clearly, Mike Babcock is a smart guy. I mean, you don't win all these hockey games and have the career he's had without being really, really smart. He's got to be smart enough to realize that he's got to change. Like, I remember talking to Pete DeBoer, and Pete DeBoer's, he's a player's coach. Like, the players, he's pretty easy on his players. But even he was telling me, like, I sat down with him a couple years ago when he

was coaching in Vegas and he said, like, yeah, the way we have to do this professional, has changed a lot since I started doing it. It was a lot more dictator-like. You can say, you tell them what to do and they all do it back when he first started. And that's not that long ago. And now the players have a lot more power. And that's probably for the good. And you're more of a partner with the players rather than their boss almost at times.

And I think that, like I said, I think Mike Babcock, in order to have the career he's had, he's got to be a smart guy. And I think he's got to realize that what he was doing can't continue. And if he can change some of those things and build good relationships with the players, we know what kind of coach he is. And like you said, maybe that's what Yarmos betting on is if he has changed some of the things that ended him not having a job, then they just got a hell of a hockey coach that that nobody else was trying to sign at the moment.

So we'll see how it works out. Speaking of coaches, the Ducks have found their new coach, Greg Cronin, replacing Dallas Aiken's first time the head coach in the NHL spent five seasons with Colorado's affiliate in the American Hockey League. Also spent a lot of seasons as an NHL assistant with the Leafs and the Islanders. Still a couple teams without a coach, but your thoughts on the Greg Cronin hiring. Jesse? I want to give them props for hiring somebody new.

We didn't really talk about it on the show, but I was super-prone. proud of the Washington Capitals for hiring Spencer Carberry. I think more assistance and more HL guys need to get shots in this league. I've been saying it forever. I think that, yes, there are some really good coaches that lose their job, and it's an obvious hire when that happens. But at the same time, I think that we need to give more new guys chances. So I don't know how Cronin's going to do.

He's got a great resume. I think that it's good that new guys are getting chances. I say we should stick with the retreads and keep the dinosaurs, you know, because it makes me feel like I belong still as a sports writer. It's funny. As long as I'm obviously being tongue-in-cheek, but it is funny when he was hired. I quickly looked at some of the mentions and people were like,

who, what the hell? You know, like, you know, what a joke franchise. I'm like, all these people is like, you know, stop with their retreads, start with the retreads. And then they hire somebody that they've never heard of. And they're like, what the hell is Anahim doing? I'm good with no retreads as long as Paul Maurice, by the way, stays in the game. That guy is ever, could you imagine covering him every day? Jesse, I know you, you have it, you haven't made with, you know, you go from DeBore to Cassidy.

But can you imagine covering Paul Maris every day? Like, as a sports trader, sometimes your tank is empty. You go to practice. You're like, what, though? Fuck am I going to write about today. I got nothing. But you go to Paul Maurice, and not only will he answer a question, he'll give you like a freaking 500 words soliloquy that you could just tack together and now you got your 500 words

into your article. This guy, like even the other day, like, you know, like Jesse, if you were in that pregame where I asked him about the heat and the Panthers having Stanley Cup final games at the same time for this feature I'm working on. And he gives an anecdote that wrote the story for me, you know, him talking. He calls home the other day and the night before game two in Denver and his wife goes to him

you know, oh, you must be calling because the heat game just ended. And that really was why he was just calling but the fact that she had knew that and was watching the game two, that stuff that his wife he said is never done before. Obviously he did it much more funnier and eloquently than I just said.

But like to me that is I just have loved kind of being the Florida guy on the series and covering him. And as long as he's still in the game, I'm perfectly fine with it. But to your point, originally, like Pat Verbeak, Rob clearly did his due diligence. He took his time with his process. He apparently went overboard on the number of interviews, you know. And I think sometimes that, you know, GMs that make quick decisions, they really are

letting their franchises down. You know, even owners that then go hire GMs and make a quick decision. Like, it is imperative sometimes to use these interviews. processes is due diligence to find out what other people think of your franchise. And so even if you are going to sit down in front of Jesse Granger and you're going to be like, I have no, I really deep down have no plans on hiring Jesse Granger as the coach. But Jesse now gives you a bunch of his thoughts on your franchise. That's great banked intelligence. And so I think Verbeek went about this business exactly the way that he should. If he thinks at the end of the day that Cronin was the

right guy for the job, I trust him more than anybody that has. has no idea what Cronin's resume is. And by the way, I'm one of those people. And finally, speak of a quick decision. We weren't shocked to find out Caldubis was going to be hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was announced as their president of hockey operations and kind of walked in the door and fired three members of the front office. So he certainly didn't take a page out of the Mike Russo handbook. I mean, usually you give everyone a chance, even if you think I'm going to get rid of this person,

cosmetically, you just kind of say, let me just pretend I'm watching and letting them prove their worth. But Kyle Dubas is coming in like a bull in a china shop in Pittsburgh. Jesse, what do you think of him cleaning a house so quickly? Yeah, it's fascinating. And it makes me wonder, like Pittsburgh has been trying to. hold on to this window for a while. And you could argue maybe too long the last couple years. It hasn't worked out. Based on the way he handled the personnel in the front office, I'm wondering what kind of drastic changes can happen with this team in terms of starting a rebuild. It makes

me wonder, like, that is such a touchy situation for a GM because that fan base, I mean, they love those players for very good reason. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting. And if you do, and if you do go that route, like, Kyle Dubus seems like a person that does things his way. And if he feels like this is the best way to do it, I'm doing it. I don't care what anyone else feels. I think it'll be, it'll end up being the right decision. If you go in there and he handles the player situation the same way he did that situation, it makes a bunch of big moves and starts a rebuild, man, you better be right.

Or there's going to be a lot of anger in the fan base. So it's, to me, I am absolutely fascinating. Like, I'm glad Dubas got the job in Pittsburgh because it's such a awkward situation with a bunch of loved players. And do you, do you try to add another piece and extend this window? Or do you try to start looking to the future? I am just, I am very fascinated. I am going to be an eager onlooker to see what happens in Pittsburgh over the next couple years. You know, it's funny.

I was just going to say, when you said, to keep this window open and I was going to say the window is closed. But, you know, I don't want to jump to too many conclusions. conclusions because I think sometimes this game is so strange sometimes right I mean everything it's puck lock and I mean look going to this year everybody thought this is going to be the downfall of the Vegas golden nights and the Bruins. They are two wins from yeah I mean this is bruises yeah 100%. So like but huge differences well actually I'm sorry I'm gonna just actually again totally contradict myself as to say huge differences between Pittsburgh and Vegas is that Pittsburgh doesn't have the goalie and I'm like well we're watching 80s.

that he'll be two wins from a cup following Logan Thompson and Brozois. Yeah. Like, you know, maybe, maybe actually we can't even say that Dr. Jerry is an issue. I guess the one thing about the rebuild thing that's very strange is to me is like, is that just, again, everything I know is mostly from reading everything, but it felt like that is where the Ron Hextell disconnect happened is that he wanted to begin that process and didn't want to sign guys to like Latang and Malkins. to long-term contracts.

And, you know, and it, and it feels like at some point somebody's going to have to make that tough decision. And clearly, Dubas is eventually going to have to make that tough decision. So, like, where did the disconnect happen? And, you know, like, and the other thing I find it hilarious is the excessive trashing publicly by the fans and media of Ron Hextall. And now, without really having any context, now Kyle Dubas is the greatest thing ever without any context.

You know, like, I don't know. There's just sometimes, sometimes it's so funny being a, the media business and watching the way that things react. It's like if you run Ron Hextel out of town, now the next guy that comes in, you've got to say it's the greatest hire ever. Let's see him work. The story that I still want to be, want to read is Sidney Crosby's role in all this, because he was right there. He was, he was meeting with Dubis. As I said, as I said, he was meeting with Ed Olchick going to have some sort of role at some point. I don't know because he was definitely in Carolina meeting with Olchick at some point during the Eastern Conference final.

What is going to happen here? You know, Mike Sullivan's role in all this. Obviously, he's very close with the Fenway group. You know, the other thing here is, does Kyle Dubus actually hire a GM? Or even if he hires a GM, is it going to be the traditional role of a GM? Kyle Dubus is going there to manage that team. He might have the president of hockey ops title, but he is the GM. This isn't going to be like, you know, like to me, it's probably a collaborative effort.

Did he not just leave a situation, though, where he was in the opposite? position and hated it. Like, if we believe all the stories that have leaked out of Toronto. Yeah. But to me is that he is running that franchise. This is going to be like this, like he is the president of hockey ops and he is going to make the decisions.

And the GM is going to be more of probably a traditional role that sometimes we see in other sports. So, um, it's just, it's like, you know, when I, at times when I was covered the heat down here,

it's like you had Randy Fun and Pat Riley, but we all know that Pat Riley was the man in charge. You know, Randy Fun was the GM. And, uh, so I, it's just going to be really.

fascinated to see how that all works. Something else can be really fascinating. Hearing from Andrew Burnett, the new head coach of the Nashville Predators, he's coming up after the break, so don't go anywhere. Okay, so when the Nashville Predators played their first game ever back in 1998, our next guest was not only on the roster, but if you want some hockey trivia, Russo, scored the first ever goal in Preds history.

Here we are. Hockey trivia, I was there for it. Hey, you're aging yourself with every single show when you do that. covering that. It was right on your 50th birthday, right? Here we are 25 years later. And he is now joining us on the athletic hockey show to talk about his new gig as head coach of the Nashville Predators. Andrew Brunette joining us. Thanks so much for doing this. And congratulations on the gig. Yeah, no problem. Thank you. Yeah. And Roos covered my first goal too. So it's a good luck charm. Oh, don't tell him stuff like that. We're never going to hear the end of it.

Remember, I'm a good luck charm. Andrew Burnett said so. But we'll get it, obviously, into the, this year's edition of the Predators, excuse me, but can you think back to that time, those first couple of games, the hype of, you know, the first ever game and franchise history and how good it must have felt in Game 2 to actually put the puck in the net for the first time? Oh, yeah. I mean, that was a pretty special time in, while the City of Nashville and the Predators,

but even in my career, you know, kind of coming into with Barry and David and Paul Gardner, that kind of had me in the American League and drafted me to Washington and getting an opportunity to come in the city that the excitement level was through the roof. It was an electric place to play. You had the country stars coming out. They were so happy to have hockey and probably didn't really know what was going on. I think the evolution of the fan base where it is now from then is amazing. But the excitement and the thrill and then not scoring the first goal, our first game story,

He was, you know, obviously, you know, we were competitive in the game, but to get the first one and kind of unfortunately like everything else, my career took a little while to say it's a goal. You're a little slow getting everywhere, but kind of blew the roof off when they finally announced it was a good goal. So there are all kinds of great memories in that city with that franchise. Yeah, our last week's guest, Ray Whitney actually scored the only goal in the first ever Predator's game. It was a 1-0 Florida win in 1998. My lead to that game story was that if this didn't kill hockey in Nashville, nothing will. I still remember that. It was such a brutal game.

And then the next game, you score the first goal in Preter's history. You know, it is funny, Bruno. I mean, you mentioned I first, you know, as a, I was covering the Panthers at the time, but I covered your first NHL goal at Miami Arena with the caps. And I covered a lot of your goals in Minnesota. I still remember sitting with you outside of coffee shop in San Jose, working on your 1,000 games story. And I happened to dig that up the other day.

And the one thing that we talked about is what was going to come next in your career. And you really at that point did not know. And next thing you know, you're playing days end and you come, you stay in Minnesota. You did every single job in wild history. And then you get the opportunity down here in Florida. When was it at a point where you realized, you know what, you've done assistant coach, you've been an assistant GM,

you've done player development, but coaching is what maybe your first passion was for. Well, I think probably near the end of my tenure in Minnesota, with some changeover and a little bit of shuffling on the deck upstairs. And it was probably probably two years in the making where you're feeling a little bit like you're missing something. You're missing not sure what. I think when we all retired and I played a long time and we think when you leave the game, you'll find something and you'll find something to replace it or you or you continue to search for it

and i found that i was in a you know i really enjoyed what i was doing i loved hockey i love the scouting i love the development i loved it all i mean that's the one thing i am kind of a hockey junkie but i just felt you're missing something you're kind of missing your you're a little bit of your north star sort of say where you're you're just felt like there's something i there's something else I want to do. And I was 46 at the time and was thinking to myself at this point, I don't know what it is. I love coaching. Maybe, you know, I miss the trenches. I miss the day-to-day activity with the players, you know, the highs and lows. You draft to Ericksonac and you're seeing he could help him do so much more. You know, you could try to push to play them or you could do all these different things.

But when you're upstairs a thousand feet away or you're in Finland watching games, you just felt so far away. And you're building block, you're building for the future, which is a real fun thing. But I think I missed in the moment, the trench. So, you know, when I was 46, kind of the changeover in Minnesota and then Joel Quinville called and asked me if I'd like to join them. And I kind of said at the time, you know, coaching, I would, I would definitely entertain. I just want to be somebody I can really learn off of. And so Joe called and I said, you know, I'm 46.

Let's just give it four years. and if it doesn't work out, you know, I'll go back to what I was doing. I think I was very good at what I was doing in much of different areas in hockey. But I had to give it a goal. So I went with Joel and the passion returned. I think I loved it more than I ever did.

And we had a great group with Barkoff and Eubertoe and to work with those guys every day and to see them get better and then feel the group, the winning become contagious and watching them grow and, you know, being enthusiastic both the style of play and how we do things, it really was an adrenaline for me, and I fell in love with it. And then, unfortunately, you know, with what happened to Joel, I got put in the head coaching

position and, you know, I even enjoyed it more. And I kind of said, this is my North Star. This is kind of what I want to do. You know, I loved, you know, being sort of control and doing things and thinking of the things that I thought of over the years kind of implementing them and having that kind of power, and I really enjoyed it. So that was kind of how it came about. I think I would have been completely content, you know, doing what I was doing.

But I felt, you know, again, not to repeat myself too many times, I felt I was missing a little something. That being said, Andrew, I mean, all you have to do is listen to any of the players who have played under you speak about your coaching style. And it's pretty simple. Your player's coach, they love you. The word fun comes up all the time. And we're at an age right now where, I mean, we just did it in the first segment of our show. You debate scrutinized coaching styles.

You've got someone like Mike Babcock coming back in the league and given the way he had to leave and everything else. More than ever, I feel like the outside voices come into old school versus new school, how you should manage men, how you should do it as far as not only on the ice, but how you manage them off the ice. I'm wondering if your philosophy's ever changed over the years. just given that you've got so many outside voices saying, you know, you can't intimidate players, you can't do this, or have you kind of always been on the same path? Well, I think, you know, we're all kind of going to,

every coach is going to run its time. And a lot of times they kind of want the opposite that's gone through. But I think one of the benefits of being in the positions I was is being around young kids at the combine and a little bit of player development. And what I've seen over the years is that, players now need more, more than ever, they need communication. And they need somebody to, regardless if you agree with them or not, but feel validated, what they're saying is really important to you.

And I think you can open that conversation up, open the lines of communication up, where they will trust you. You know, I think every, I mean, even in life, I think, you know, I believe in the word connection. And I think we all crave to be connected to somebody. or something. You know, the game of hockey is a huge connection for me. But within the connection, there's all kinds of little values that kind of go with

that. And I think communication with today's players, it's not like the old days and not like when I grew up where you never wanted to talk to the coach, you know. And if you did talk to the coach, it was no good. Today's player is they want to be heard. They want to be seen. And, you know, I think of Bruce Brudrow, you know, and I was working with him in Minnesota, he had, he might have been ahead of his time.

time he on his board he had all the things that were important and one of them was make sure he talked to all everyone you know as as coaching staff make sure we had every person today every player today and that's something I took for him and I think that's so important because it's a different world and I kind of saw it from being upstairs and in the combines and working with young kids and how much they need they want to know why this generation and and we have to be able to be vulnerable enough to know that you know we don't know why. all the time, but we're going to work together. You know, we're going to be a partnership here and we're going to get better.

And so I think that those are some of the things that I've kind of learned are as it perfect, is the old school way better? I think if you can blend both, I just think it's harder and harder in today's game twofold that the players, it's a partnership now, you know, with how the salary cap is. And you have these players for long-term deals. And if you're going to go and be the hard iron fist, you lose guys. And I think if you can create some kind of atmosphere,

some kind of culture where it doesn't mean that it's not honest. It doesn't mean that it's not hard. It doesn't mean that there's going to be some tough conversations. But I think if you're able to listen, if you're able to be compassionate, I think you're going to grow with the player and then you're going to build trust. And I think when you're built trust, that's when you're really coaching.

By the way, listening to you, I started thinking about 2010 when you were at church. Brandon Camp, Robin. We're interviewing James Shepard, and James Shepard's locker was right next to Bruno. We're talking about the new coach, Todd Richards, and James made some comment. Like, it's just nice to be coached by somebody that played the game. And Bruno all of a sudden just looked up as he was, like, tying his, like, shoes. And when we got done, I said to Bruno, said, what do you think about that?

He goes, should I tell him that he was just coached by a Hall of Famer and Jacques Ameri? That's right. James Scherer was excited to be coached by Todd Richards because he played the game. That Limerga on those Canadian teams from the 70s. Who cares about that, right? That's pretty good, yeah. It's incredible.

Yeah. Let me ask you about Barry Trots. Obviously, he's your first ever coach. And if anybody knows, you know, the importance of patience, it's him, right? I mean, he coached, it was David Poyle and him as a tag team for a long, long time there in Nashville. Can you talk about just, you know, the mutual respect that you. you two have for each other. What made you think that this is the person I could trust to go to for my next job and a little bit about the team? You know, I mean, you know, you got the goalie

and Soros, you got some great D there, great D. And, you know, obviously Yossi and McDonough and Tyson Barry, who I covered his dad and Fabro. And, you know, there's a kid, Parson in there that lit up the wild in the final regular season game for the wild. It looks like a absolute young stud. It just seems like there's a lot there to work with. Yeah, the first part with Barry, our relationship goes back 30, 31 years ago. And Barry's obviously been a later pick in Washington and kind of going to the American League and working with Barry as being a young score at a junior that really know had no clue how to play hockey, was out of shape, wasn't ready for professional hockey.

And the patience he showed me, the trust he put in me. And a lot of the things that I've tried to incorporate through, not just through hockey, through my life of values and how to treat people stem from Barry. And, you know, I think we've kept in touch through the whole years. He was always very supportive. He coached me in Nashville, even other places I played. He was always sort of in touch. And we had so many great memories together in Portland.

We want to call their cup. And we went to the finals and lost in game seven. So we went through a lot of stuff together. He helped me grow as a person and obviously a hockey player because I never would have played if it wasn't for Barry. So we've had that, you know, I've had that mentor for most of my life, professional hockey life. And when an opportunity comes to get back to work with them, and I think we see the game, a lot of the similar ways, different in a lot of ways, but similar in a lot of ways, how we,

you know, how we treat people, how we treat players, you know, the work ethic that comes with being a pro, but he also has won't have some enjoyment in the game. So a lot of those things just fit and to be connected with them. And again, somebody that have a lot of trust in, I mean, it was a no-brainer for me. As for the, as for the predators in Nashville, I think they got a lot of, you know, really unique pieces, you know, with the goalie, you'll see. And he said up front with Forsberg and Duchayne and Johansson and the influx of young players that they have coming.

I think they have seven picks in the top 83 this year. So I'm looking forward to being part of that process of growing that group. There's pieces in place. but I think the future for them in the next few years looks really bright. You talked about parsnment. So it's an exciting time to be in Nashville Predder. We're going to hopefully grow as a group here over the next few years and then kind of hit the goal that I think when I went 98,

I was hoping to accomplish maybe I can come back and find a way to win a Stanley Cup in Nashville. That being said, a lot of times when a coach takes over, it's mid-season. You're just trying to write the ship and stop the bleeding and get guys on the right path. But when you get a job at this time of the year, you know, during the Stanley Cup finals,

paint me a picture of the last week. Is it spent on the phone or on Zoom calls talking to players? I mean, what do you do the first week when everyone's kind of scattered by this point? Well, it's just been a whirlwind, just even from our season in New Jersey, ending probably, I don't know, three weeks ago. You know, it feels like about five years ago. And a little bit of this point in the second round, and then you're just kind of trying to decompress a little bit.

and there was no time for that. And then you kind of go on this World Win kind of interview tour a little bit. And then you have the stress of making a decision. And then you're kind of pulled each and every different way. And then you meet with the players. You're trying to just really introduce yourself. The nice thing about it is you have some runway. You know, I think last year, you know, when I was in Florida, you know,

I think, you know, kind of ran into July before I knew I wasn't coming back. A lot of the head jobs were gone. you still want to coach, you want to put yourself in the best position as possible. So then you end up in Jersey at the end of July and then the runway is short. You have no real chance to decompress because you're getting up and moving. So at least this year, there's three months to try to reach out to the players, get to know them a little bit, try to understand and meet all the staff and see where direction everybody's going. So there's a lot of work to be done.

It's fun work. But yeah, it's been a real role. in. Andrew, obviously, I'm in Florida covering the Stanley Cup final. You know, you coached him a presence trophy last year. You were Jack Adams finalist. You mentioned how late it was in the game before you were informed that you weren't returning.

How tough was that? And, you know, when you look at this team now, one, how proud of you of your former players, but two, do you wonder, you know, what could have been? Yeah, I mean, great questions. I think, you know, I'd be lying to if I said it wasn't tough. last summer. And I really I love that group.

I watched them grow for three years. And you knew they were a special group and we kind of ran out of gas. We lost your mojo and there's so many great learning experiences from last year for that group. You know, with Tampa sweeping us and

kind of looking at them and knowing, hey, this is the team we want to be and this is what it takes. And we've had multiple conversations. And I think they're aware of it. I think I talked to, you know, Joe a lot in Colorado and they had to go through similar things before they broke through. I think it's just the evolution of winning. It's hard.

And we all know it's hard, but until you go through, I don't think you're really no hard it is. You hear, I saw Jack Eichols comment there yesterday. So it was a great experience and obviously they learned from it. And I'm proud of the way that they've, you know, I kind of sensed even going in the last year, probably would have been a little bit of a tough start because when you have a year like you had last year, it's going to test you a little bit because there's going to be a letdown. And obviously there's a little coaching change. It was a little ball to get gone.

But I think the heart and soul of that group and resiliency and grit that I've seen all two years ago, where we had all those comeback wins and they never gave up and they wanted to be great. And again, it showed up and they found a way to get in the playoffs when it was looking pretty bleak. And I knew once they get in, they'd be a real dangerous team. team. And I'm proud of the way that they're down three, one against Boston, and then they find a way. And then now they've taken off, you know, kind of, you know, ran through Toronto and Carolina. And now they're getting tested again. And with this group, I wouldn't be surprised at anything. I wouldn't be surprised at one for in a row. I mean, that's just kind of what's

inside that group. So there's pride there, but there's a lot of pain. It's hard. I mean, we're all humans. You wonder what could have been. You wondered if you were here, if you're not there. But I think the end of the day, when you kind of let go a lot of that, I think you feel good that the small part you had at them, but being around them and seeing how much this means to them. And so there's some pride and some enjoyment from on my side to see them have success. Yeah. And you should. I mean, trust me, I know this organization better than most. And they hadn't won a playoff round since 1996 until you coached them last year. I got to ask you, Andrew, so I'm having a cigar the other day with Steve Levy and in, Vegas. And I, you know, still, I think one of his most iconic calls ever was your 2003 winner that sent Patrick Waugh into retirement, the Andrew Brunette, you know, in the, in the,

in overtime. And so I just started on, I just started telling him Andrew Brunette stories. And two that I want you to share on this podcast. One is, um, I'll tell you the first one now is, uh, you mentioned Quinville. Tell everybody about the gift that he sent you once in front of your home and, uh, Woodbury, Minnesota and why. Yeah, we were, uh, uh, It's urban legend. But we were, so we had to play Dallas. So it was Dallas or Chicago,

would get in the game. And I think Chicago ended up losing. And so we had to beat Dallas. Game 82. Yeah, they needed two. So to, yeah, game E2 to get in the playoffs or if they didn't win,

Chicago would get in. So anyways, we were extremely short-handed. Actually, Jared Spurgeon, and scored a real big goal for us. And we found a way to beat to beat Dallas, which with our group at that point, it gave me to, we found enough luster. And those, I always say those teams are dangerous.

Well, we were dangerous that day. And we won. So then I had a team party the next day and had a bunch of people come in. And we knew the Budweiser guy and they dropped off at my house a bunch of beer the day before. And I'm cleaning up and I'm hung over and trying to get garbage. and, you know, empty in beer cans, et cetera. And I hear this beeping in a Budweiser truck starts pulling in my driveway. And I don't even want to see a beer the rest of my life at this point.

So he's pulling in and I wave him down. And I'm like, no, no, no, you guys came yesterday. You know, we've had, I've had weren't enough here. And he's like, no, sorry, sir, I have to drop this off. It's coming from a real important source. So they drop off, you know, I said drop off. off a bunch of cases. They,

who's, who's the real important source? And they said, Joel Kwanvel. So he, yeah, so he dropped off 12 cases of beer unannounced. And again,

that's urban legend. So, you know, it was basically a thank you gift for beating down. Yes. For allowing the Blackhawks to make the playoffs. And did they win the cup that year, I think?

It was pretty sure. Yeah. Hey, last one I wanted to is, The story that I love is you and Ray Ferrar are playing for the thrashers and a ton of stories there. But the one, the game against the coyotes, final seconds of the game, you guys are like minus the thousands. Tell everybody this story and what you guys said to each other off the final phase off. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of one of those years that nothing went right for us.

We're collecting birdies all over the place. Eagles, you name. And actually we caught an eagle. So we're actually playing a pretty good game. and I think we're down to nothing. It might have been right before Christmas or right before the break. And you're kind of feeling good about yourself. Anytime you're even for the thrashers, you felt pretty good about your hockey game.

So we pull a goalie, they score to make it 3-0. And so we get to the bench and we're like, you know, geez, you know, okay, we're minus one. Well, then they pull a goalie again. And we jump on, they put us on, they score again. So it reminds us two, and there's about 15 seconds left, 20 seconds left in the game. We're down for nothing. thing. We're a last place team in the league. We're a dashed two now.

So, you know, for a game, you're feeling pretty good at. And there's a face off in the corner and we call time out. And when they call time out, Razor looks at me, he says, they better not be doing what I think they're doing, you know, with 25 seconds left. Well, sure enough, we pull a goalie. We drop a play and we just called a kid up from, I think it was Orlando at the time that spoke very little English.

And we were drawing up some special play that we probably never had. executed ever. So we get to the face off circle and I look over at Ray and I said, Ray, nothing good is coming out of this at all. I said, just throw it, like just put it on somewhere around me. I'm going to fall on it and I'm going to kill the rest of the clock because you know, we're dead. But Ray being a good soldier snaps it back. The guy, I know the defense had no idea is doing passes to them. They went down and then scored to make it five nothing and and we're dash three. And I was so mad at Razor.

I said, I'll kill it. Just put it anywhere near me. I'm going to eat that puck in my app. We got too many, too many freaking minuses right now. Oh, man. So it was a million stories from that team. That was the one team. We, you know, we had struggles mightily all year, but we found some enjoyment and being

around each other, which goes to the point where you could still, I know, it's a hard game and everything, you know, is about wins and losses. But the experience in being around those guys and being connected was most fun. I've had with a lot of different guys. You know, I've been on some really good teams. I never had the connection that I had with those guys in Atlanta, which kind of shows you a little bit about the game. I mean, it's all, everybody talks about winning cups.

And trust me, we'd all love to. But I think if you can find enjoyment with the players you play with, because those are the everlasting connections that you keep. Well, hopefully you'll find that enjoyment behind the bench as well as that coach of the Nashville Predators. Andrew, I know it's been a crazy week. Thanks so much for doing this. Good luck this season. Hopefully this is not the last time we talked to you.

Hopefully we'll talk to you after a couple of Ws and nobody's a dash two or dash three in the final minutes of the game. Okay. Thanks, guys. Anytime. Appreciate it. Andrew Brunner. Yeah, thanks. Yeah.

The new head coach of the Nashville Predators. Rapid Fire coming up. So don't go anywhere. All right, boys, my favorite time of the show and yours, rapid fire. Topic number one, Conor Bedard is awesome. I know. Super shocking news. It became the first player in CHL history to sweep the player of the year,

the top prospect, and the top scorer awards during the Memorial Cup. What more can we say about this kid, Russell? Yeah, and, you know, I got to talk to him at the press conference the other day in Vegas and chat with these other prospects. I thought he was a really humble kid, the way he constantly brings in. the other prospects and didn't make this like this was his show. You could tell at times he is, feels, you know, it's like, look, anybody that's wired like this, he is, you know that he is wired to be a superstar, but it just seems like there is a humility there that he does want to

be very hockey player like part of the team. And I love, I actually love the fact that he took a couple shots to the media during the press conference. He goes on the TNT panel and rips into Bizanette. It sounded like it was a planned joke that was probably given to him because I don't think he's got that type of balls to sit next to everybody and say a lot of great players here on this panel on YouTube biz. But it was pretty good. But I'm really looking forward to seeing him in the National Hockey League and playing for Chicago. And let's see.

Look, you know, I think we're all expecting him to just light the team up, light the league up right away. But let's be honest, he's still 17 years old right now, turning 18. Let's give him a little, you know, be a little patient. My initial thought when I saw this brief is how has that not happened before? sweeping all those awards. Like we've had, like there have been so many players that just annihilate junior hockey.

I can't believe that he's the first person to ever sweep those awards. That was my initial. We all know how good he is, but no one's done that. I believe one of these awards is relatively new. So I think it's,

it's, I'd have to double check. Two years this existed. It's not that new, but new-ish. Like, not wasn't around when Mario was destroying, you know,

everybody in the queue. Rapid Fire topic number two, Cole Cofield sticking around in Montreal, eight years 62.8 million dollars had 36 points and 46 games this season before yet to have that season ending surgery. Jesse. Yeah, as long as he continues on his current trajectory, that's going to be a phenomenal contract for Montreal Canadiens.

It's become the trend lately. You sign guys to longer-term deals well before they reach UFA status so that you can keep them under the cap hit that they would be if you waited. and just in general, I love Cole Coughfield's story. I think smaller, skilled guys succeeding in the NHL is good for the game because it'll, I remember the hesitancy to draft him coming out, even though all he did was score goals.

The more of those types of players succeed at this level, the more skill we're going to see in the game, I think that's great. Yeah, Matt Boldie at seven years, 49 was clearly the comparable there, and they went one more extra year. I think Cawfield, you know, they're always going to be linked at the hip in terms of, because, you know, they could have been drafted around the same thing. same time. I just think that it's a really good contract, especially in the context that we all think in a year or two that the cap is going to really start to skyrocket. Once the players pay back

all this escrow, that we are going to get to a point where we are now actually, as long as there's no pandemics and work stoppages and things like that, that's going to hurt the business. We're going to see this cap climb. And if now all of a sudden these players start to oversee their contracts, these are going to be bargains. So I think that's the gamble here. It's kind of the opposite of what I was saying with Gavikov. I think one big reason why they only want to sign two years in L.A. is that they are betting on themselves.

And Dan Milstein thinks that when that cap rises, that this kid could be a monsterly paid defense. And I'm going to combine rapid fire topic number three and four because it's both about players on the trade block. And I want to know which one you guys think is going to get moved first. Alex DeBrinke, apparently Ottawa, doing their due diligence right now is a year away from

unrestricted free agency. And in Winnipeg, the Jets are reportedly, reportedly, quote, listening to offers for Connor Hellebuck. And of course, people all speculating as to what teams they would fit the best. But who gets moved first if either of these guys does get moved in the near future? Russo. That's a good question. I would say probably Hellebuck. They're going to move him. And there's a lot of now, the goalie market is starting to really, explode and I do think that there's a lot of teams right now. They're going to need

goleys. Pittsburgh, we just mentioned. Ottawa, New Jersey, the L.A. Kings. There are teams that are going to need goalies and I think that they realize that this is the big fish and they better go pounce on that. Where to Brinket, I think obviously teams are going to be very, very interested. It's just going to be really fascinating. To me, actually, just to go back to Winnipeg, it's going to be really fascinating what they do here, obviously with Shepley. I think Dubois has no intention of signing there as well. So these guys, you know, This team is going to have to be, you know, really smart in their ability to move these players to sausage.

Can you imagine being the GM of the Winnipeg Jets? I mean, you know, people want to come to Vegas. People want to come to Florida. People want to come to places where there's no state taxes. You know, Winnipeg is Winnipeg, and Winnipeg is in a country that takes basically 55% of your salary, you know, in Canada, you know, in terms of taxes and things like that. This is just really hard to be a manager right now in Canada. And especially Winnipeg.

And, you know, it just puts you in a spot as a GM where you've got all these incredible assets and now you've got to move them. And you're going to have to move them for players that you're going to control for a while and keep that window. Otherwise, it's just a never-ending cycle there. I do feel for the fans. And again, the context of what the perception out there is of playing in Winnipeg versus some of these other southern market cities. So initially when I heard this question, I thought De Brink, it'll be moved first because it's tougher to trade. goalie. There are just many spots available, obviously, as there are for forwards and defensemen. The cap is tough to manage, but Rousseau convinced me, I think Halebuck will go first, just because

how many teams there are looking for a goalie. So Rousseau sold me. I'll go with Hullabuck goes first, too. All right, boys, another show in the books. I usually ask you what you're working on, but I already know what both are you working on tonight. Jesse's going to be working on the basketball game and probably a frosty beverage or two. And Rousseau's going to work on his new piece. I'm looking at the title now. Aden Hill save greatest in Stanley Cup final history. And I can't wait to read each and every word about why that's the most important save, even though it was in game one.

So we'll see the next week. It's going to be the greatest save in game one before the team that had it robbed still tied the game. That's going to be the high. Or why it's not the greatest save. Stop loving on it. It's just incredible. I want to let everybody know if you want to see Rousseau. those crumajun faces, he's telling us,

he'll say it wasn't that great. Head to YouTube. We've got a YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash the athletic hockey show. And the athletic hockey show continues Thursday with Down Goes Brown and Shana Goldman. Want to say a big thanks to Andrew Brunette for joining us on the show.

Peruso and Jesse, I'm Pizzo. We'll see you next week.