The Athletic Hockey Show - Biggest NHL storylines heading into 2022, New Year’s resolutions for hockey, Multiple Choice Madness, and much more

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

On the first show of the new year, Ian and Hailey are joined by guest cohost, The Athletic’s own Julian McKenzie to look ahead at what could be the biggest storylines in hockey in 2022, including continued COVID-19-related scheduling chaos, questions about Connor McDavid’s legacy, Arizona Coyotes turmoil, the eventual return of Carey Price to the Montreal Canadiens lineup, and more.Then, the group talks about the rumors that Roberto Luongo is in the mix to become GM of the Habs and discuss whether or not he’d have to delete his Twitter account if he got the job, if the Tampa Bay Lightning would be the greatest dynasty in hockey history if they were able to win a third straight Stanley Cup this season, the Winter Classic seemingly getting less shine this year, the USA Women’s Olympic team roster announcement getting talked over during intermission, and how potentially rescheduling the World Junior Championship to June could impact the participation of highly-ranked draft eligibles like Shane Wright.Plus, New Year’s resolutions about using points percentage instead of points to determine the NHL standings and a little bit of Multiple Choice Madness to close things out.And, right now, you can sign up for an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All right, happy new year, everybody, and welcome to the first episode of the Athletic Hockey Show here in 2022. It's Ian Mendez-Haley-Salvian in the lead-off spot, as always for you, not only to kick off the week, but a new year as well. Our man Julian McKenzie is going to be with us hanging out for the hour. We'll tee up the year ahead in hockey. Talk about some interesting storylines we're projecting in the next 12 months. We'll talk about some New Year's resolutions that we might have in the hockey world, the winner classic, when to reschedule the world juniors, multiple choice madness. It's all going to be jam-packed into a very fun action-packed hour here to kick off the new year as we say hello to the two of you.

Haley, Salvin, Julian McKenzie. You know what I just realized, gang? Haley's not going to like this. We all have the name Ian hidden in our names. I just realized this as I was looking at the rundown because it's Julian and Salvean and Ian. say it's the Ian podcast. Let's roll. Ian's assemble. I didn't, I never realized this with Haley. His ego grows stronger every moment. Yeah. But listen, happy New Year again. You must have stopped. Happy New Year, dude. Happy

to hear your Haley. Good to hang out with you guys. Happy to, you know, kick it for the next hour with you guys. Yeah. I apologize on behalf of Ian already. We co-hosted a show. How long ago was it? A couple weeks ago? That was very chaotic. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Well, you've jumped at. You've been a pinch hitter here a bunch of times. And I know you're part of the Wednesday show quite a bit. But, you know, I think for the purposes of the Monday listeners here at the Athletic Hockey Show, I think, Haley, we need to let Julian kind of let the hockey world know how many podcasts he's a part of, what he's up to because this guy's got like 25 side hustles going. at all times. Yeah, I work at the athletic as an associate editor on the NHL team.

I assist with the Montreal Canean's coverage with Arp. Ambassador and Marc Antoine Gidei. I am the host of the Chris Johnston show with Chris Johnston, which you could also listen to on the athletic and also the host of Zone Time with the Iowa Sports and hockey inside out with the Montreal Gazette. It's not nearly as many podcasts as a lot of people like to make it seem, but it's still like a lot, I guess. But, yeah, sometimes hang out on Wednesdays with the T-H-H-S crew English problem.

Anyway, T-H-H-S crew with Sarah and Jesse Granger as well, and sometimes Rob Pizzo. And, yeah, just like talking hockey, essentially. Can you do a power rankings of the athletic hockey show days right now? Oh, no. That's, oh, man. Right now. Okay. So it's kind of tough to do some of the other days that I haven't been on, but I'll say that a close, like it's a tie between the Wednesday and the Monday crew, because you guys are, I relate to you both on some pretty personal levels. And I've been on both shows. So I can't put one above the other, but Ian and Haley, you guys are definitely tied for first place. See, that's a smart answer. So we don't like the Tuesday show. Sorry.

Yeah, exactly. I have no opinion on the Tuesday show. No opinion on Craig Custins and Sean Gentilly. I have no opinion on either of those two. I've already, I think I brought up Craig's name on a Wednesday show once talking about how we need to talk about my contract status or something. And I didn't hear anything about that. So I have no opinion on Craig Custin's and Sean Jintilly, who is just some dude. Great. Same.

All right. In truth, we love those guys. Those guys, we love those guys. It is great to be back for another year of the athletic hockey show because we're kind of getting into the one-year anniversary of this. But as we look ahead, hey, I'm going to start this podcast with a fun little exercise. It's a little fill in the blank here to start off the new year. Haley, I'm going to ask you to lead us off here, okay? as we're looking ahead to the year 2020, I want you to fill in the blank. So finish the sentence, Haley.

The biggest hockey storyline of 2022 will be blank. What's it going to be? Gosh, I don't like leading off stuff. I wonder, like, I thought maybe like the Olympians, NHLers being back, the Olympics would be one. But obviously that's not happening. but maybe that is a big part, especially if you start seeing more players have the same vocal opinions as Brad Marchand. Is this season actually going to get completed as normal? Are we going to have a normal playoffs?

Like, what's going to, I just feel like it's so hard to think of anything else other than. And maybe it's because we're in Canada, it's so crazy. Like, you looked at, I think it was a game in Montreal, and there's like a couple maybe staff members in the stands. And then you look at the Winter Classic and it's packed. Like, I just don't know how this, like, continuation. of this kind of COVID situation isn't the biggest thing we're dealing with right now. It's not the fun answer. No.

It's kind of the thing that's taking everything over right now. Julian, same question over to you. I want you to put on your or look into your athletic hockey show, Crystal Ball, and tell me what's the biggest storyline of 2022 in the hockey world? Yeah, COVID is definitely near the top of that one. But to be different from Haley, maybe I'm projecting a little bit further. in the future and just focusing on actual Law & Ice storylines.

I think we're going to have a long... Here's the close second. Probably will be the Shane Wright extravaganza and then the Connor Bedard extravaganza. I have a weird feeling. We're going to be talking a lot more about Connor McDavid's legacy this year. I think the Emmetton Oilers,

I know they're not going through a good run of play as of late. And there's a lot of talk about, you know, what additions they need to add at the deadline. is their team even good enough to beat the flames in a seven game series, which the answer to that right now doesn't seem as if it's a yes. I think the flames would actually beat. Yeah, the flames are going to beat the Oilers in the seven game series if we get it,

because they're built for the playoffs more than the Oilers are. And I think as we see year in, year out, the Oilers continue to not make a deep run in the playoffs and continue to play through Connor McDavid entering his best years and not seeing any tangible success. I think more and more people are going to do. start to kind of drive up that conversation and drive up his legacy a little bit. I think that might end up being the biggest thing, only because we know how incredible

Connor McDavid is as a player. We know what he's able to do on the ice. And we've seen other guys with his talent level, whether anywhere close, they eventually got on to win. But I think that pressure is going to be a little bit, a little bit hotter on it. That's, that's my guess. Does the future of the Arizona coyotes get on the radar for either of you? remember, there's a lot of uncertainty there.

Doesn't look like they're going to be allowed to play in Glendale next season. They could be this sort of nomadic team. Does that get on the radar for either of you saying, you know what, one of the most significant storylines in hockey in 2022 is we potentially have an NHL team that doesn't have a home, you know, six or nine months from now? If they move, that's what it would do for me. If they move to Houston, if they move to a Canadian market,

if they move somewhere else, then yeah, If they're still trying to make it work in Arizona, I'm sorry, I'm not going to care about it nearly as much as COVID, what Canadian teams are going to be doing, especially what's going on in Montreal right now, which that's also a candidate for the Montreal of the year. Who's the GM for the Montreal Canaan is going to be in the structure that they have? That could also be a candidate, considering everything they've gone through. Yeah, unless the Arizona Coyotes move, and it could be, again, Houston, it could be a Canadian market. If it goes to a Canadian market, then everyone's going to lose their mind. Yeah, if they're just being nomadic, it's not going to move the needle for me nearly as much. Yeah, I think we've heard so many different, there's been so many different steps over the years with the coyote story.

This kind of feels like another one. And we've talked about this before, Ian, like, it's unfortunate. I remember we had Katie Strang on. And she was like, you know, there's good people out there. Like, there's good fans out there. Like, hockey could work. And she feels bad for the fan base of people in Arizona in that area who just want hockey. and forget who was talking to me about this.

It was just like, you know, Austin Matthews could have been playing like baseball or golf or something if he hadn't have seen hockey in the desert, right? So, like, it's important, I think, in terms of growing the game to make it work out there. But so if, like Julian said, if it's just another year of what it's been, then I don't know. The fact that they're getting, like, kicked out of their building is a big story. so where are they going to play? How is that going to work out? It's going to be a massive story.

I just wonder if people are like, all right, something else is going on. It's like how many times are people going to actually get excited about the idea of Lippretton Flatsy and. Oh, I know. You know? Both of us are in markets where there's certainly a lot of uncertainty with arena stuff. So that in Calgary and on Ottawa and certainly in Arizona too, there's a lot of arena uncertainty. Julian brought up something really interesting, which is the Montreal Canadiens need a new general manager.

Roberto Luongo's name has been thrown into the mix. I ask you this, gang, if Roberto Luongo somehow ends up becoming the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, does he delete his Twitter account? Yes or no? I don't want him to be GM because I love his Twitter account. I know. I know.

What do you want? Do you want Roberto to keep his Twitter account? Or do you want him to be the GM of the Habs? Because I don't know that he can do both. I think he tweets in French and English from the Twitter account. I think he starts to be turning out by the little tweets. Yeah, with the slash. Yeah, like two tweets or like the backslash.

Yeah. At the very least, like he'll do like one as like a joke or something. I can't see him. I think like it'll be a situation where maybe like he's not going to, I don't know how often he tweets now. But like maybe like every now and then like he'll put out some tweet or something just to let everyone know that like the account is still alive. But yeah, good luck trying to be on Twitter every day in Montreal, the market that it is, as GM of the Montreal Canadians with all the attention that's been on that. So I don't think it'll be a regular thing, but I'd like for him to just kind of sneak behind the curtain and do something every once in a while, if it happens.

I think the funniest part about Roberto Lwango's Twitter account is like he isn't super active on Twitter. Like it's just every once in a while, you'll get this like, oh, that rocks. Like that's really funny. You get this like random thing from Roberta Luongo every once in a while and it's pretty funny. But I don't know if he could be saying the things that he does if he becomes general manager somewhere. I mean,

has he been active while he was technically with like. Team Canada. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure.

He was active and he was he was tweeting out. He had a couple during. And they're always like great Photoshop things involving him. And they're all. Look, it's great. It's fun. I just don't think if he ends up being the general manager of the Canadians, I just don't think he can kind of keep that going, right?

Like with that franchise, it's like a historic franchise, right? Like maybe if you were the general manager of the Cracken or the Vague, like some upstart team, maybe you could have some fun with it. I don't know that that market, well, Julian, you would know you're in that market. Would they be okay with the fact that their general manager is having fun? The irony being, Mark Bergevan is one of the great pranksters of all time, but he really dialed it back, right? when he was the GM in the Habs, he was this, you know, very buttoned-down guy that seemed to be bursting out of his suit.

But he never, he never was playing jokes or anything like that, was he? Yeah. I was thinking being the GM of the Habs warmed down. Sorry, Julian, go ahead. No, you're absolutely right. Like that last year, that 2021 for Barker Bersivant, going through the off-season entering January, we got all those players, the media availability, the way they just looked. Like, I say this all the time.

He looked like a man who was stressed and knew that he had to make this year work. You can't tell me. Look at him in 2012 compared to 2021. Like, remember when we were looking at Barack Obama between the start of his presidency and the end of it? Like, it was kind of similar in that sense. I could definitely war him now. Also, the more we talk about this Roberto Luongo Twitter account, the more I'm inclined to believe now, after thinking about this a little more, through the interview process.

I'm sure you guys have heard stories about this before where, like, someone's Twitter account kind of gets them in trouble and they can't get that job, maybe that's what ends up happening with Roberta Luwongo. Maybe it's not the reason why he doesn't get the job, but maybe it's because, nah, man, this guy's just too much of a personality online. This isn't what we want. Yeah, it's a fair point for sure.

You know, one other storyline that I think is really important to, to hit on here of things we're looking forward to in 2022, I would say the return of Kerry Price into the, into the crease of the Montreal Canadians will be one of those stories. that I think transcends hockey, right? And at some point, you know that Kerry Price will likely open up to somebody and kind of tell his story. That's going to be a powerful night.

And, you know, fingers crossed, there's fans there to welcome him back. But I would say, Haley and Julian, the return of Kerry Price is something that I think hockey fans are probably really looking forward to encircling on their calendar here in 2020. Yeah. I think with Kerry Price and what he's meant to, the city of Montreal and it's a fan base, if they find themselves in a position where they're able to welcome him back and whether it's even at half of the attendance at the Bell Center, you're going to probably get the loudest ovation in the building all year.

And in spite of the crappy year that they've had, they've had moments where they've been overjoyed with like Matt Chapparel scoring a hat trick against the Detroit Red Wings, Mark Andre Fleury winning 500 games in his home province. Everyone got up for that, but I think the Canadians faithful, if they're allowed in the Bell Center at that point, they will provide a lengthy ovation for a goaltender who has meant so much to the fan base, to the team, the better part of over 15 years, 16 years with this organization. So, yeah, that would definitely be a big story. Not to mention the fact that this would be the second guy they've had away from their team coming back. They had Jonathan Druent who started off the year after taking some time away for anxiety issues and Samia. And he's having himself a somewhat decent season at least and tried to at least have some fans off his back.

But Kerry Price, that's somebody who a lot of fans, there are some fans who are still in their feelings from the whole Halak thing. But there are a lot of fans who love Carrie Price, obviously. So that would obviously be a big storyline. So I think when you look at the potential stories that could happen in 2022, Haley, one that really, I think if this happens, if this comes to pass, I think this is the biggest story of the year. And that would be Tampa Bay winning a third consecutive Stanley Cup. Like to me, if Tampa Bay wins a third Stanley Cup Haley, I'm going to say the lightning are in the conversation as the greatest dynasty in hockey history. When you think about the salary cap, and I know they didn't win five in a row. You can already see a noted Habs fan, Julian McKenzie furrowing his...

Not even a halfs fan. Not even a halfs fan. Don't put that on me. That's just... But like, come on. That's really big. It's the greatest dynasty and hockey history. If Tampa wins a third consecutive cup,

I think Haley... Look, when you factor in the salary cap era and parody and COVID and all of the factors that go into how difficult it is to win, that they could win three in a row. Come on. To me, that's the greatest dynasty. The Oilers in the 80s never won three in a row. Marios Penguins never won three in a row. And they didn't have a salary cap dragging them down.

And to me, this would be the greatest dynasty in hockey history. You got to take this one first, man. You got to take this one first. I got to think about this. I think that that's probably like two snap of a judgment. I think it's really easy to try to make that decision in the third year of a team potentially winning something. you know, and I just...

Okay, name me a better dynasty then in hockey. Both of you. Name me a better... Very passionate about this. More impressive dynasty in hockey than if Tampa wins three stray Stanley Cups. It's still the Canadians in the Wednesday won. Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, it's okay.

I think what's impressive about what Tampa's done is... And I mean, this is putting the cart before the horse. Like, it's January. They've lost like... straight and we're talking about they're about to win a third Stanley Cup. That's what I'm saying, like, it's a little hard to have this conversation now when we're not even close to the playoffs, but I think what Tampa's done that's been really impressive is the ways in which they've built their team to win these Stanley Cups. Like, you look at the people, and I think we've talked

about this before. Like, they don't just do a good job drafting and developing their players. Like, look at a lot of the pieces that are major, like, pieces for their Stanley Cup winning roster. Those are drafted and developed, quote unquote, homegrown within the organization talents. That's impressive. That's always a really important piece of the pie. But they also do a really good job scouting and signing players. How many people looked at the Barclay Goodrow trade and was like, they're giving up what for who? And then they got Blake Coleman. And then all of a sudden they put that line together and it's like, well, holy shit. This is like one of the best lines in hockey right now in terms of helping you win back-to-back Stanley Cup.

So I think, and then obviously you have an incredible goal tender. You have stamp coach. They have so many pieces and a good coach. You can make the argument over, like, who built the foundation of that team. Was it the current GM or the former? So I just don't know. I think it's an interesting conversation. I just think it's way too early to do it.

Like, if we're looking at in the window right now of what they've actually won, back-to-back Stanley Cups, are you more impressed by the Pittsburgh Penguins doing it or the Tampa Bay Lightning. Are you more impressed by the Detroit Red Wings a couple years ago before they started rebuilding? Are you more impressed by that team? The Penguins, Tampa Bay, you look even further back to Montreal. I just don't know if we can say right now this is the greatest dynasty ever, especially when you consider last year was a really weird year.

Everyone's going to bring up the cheating. They didn't cheat. They're cheating. I know. I'm kidding. So I was whispering. I know, I know. I know.

Here's the thing. I get so annoyed about. I don't think they cheated either, but. I know for sure. I know you, I know, you know, you know what? I know both of you don't think they cheated because I know both of y'all have sense. But the problem is with the Tampa Bay Lightning is that because they found they're so good, they're built so strong. Everyone just assumes that, oh, they found a way to stash all this money on LTIR.

They're surely cheating, knowing that every team has the opportunity to do that if they so choose and have also found ways. to do similar things to skirt under the salary cap. And I'm going to say this again, like I've said it before. If the Toronto Maple Leafs did this exact thing, nobody would be saying they would be cheating. I said that specific market because I know damn well. People would be like, oh, well, that's just how it is. You have to put this player on LTIR. People would do this very differently depending on which team it would be.

Also, to your point, Ian, about the Tampa Bay Lightning. I have a photo in front of me from my time covering the Stanley Cup final, the beginning of game three of the Stanley Cup, the starting lineup, there's Barclay Goodrow, there's Yanni Gord, Blake Coleman is there, I think David Savard's on the ice,

Mikhail Surgherjaf. Only one of those Tampa Bay Lightning players are still the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they're still a very good team. They're an excellent squad. I think already the fact that they were able to build the team that they have, stay under the salary cap as good as they can,

play through a pandemic. They wanted a bubble, and they went through 2021 the way that they did. In my eyes, they're already the best team of the salary cap era to me. They're better than the penguins. They're better than so many other teams. But they only have two Stanley cups to their tally back to back in the salary cap era like this. So I think we can only, I mean, and Haley has an excellent point.

We're putting the cart before the horse here. They need to win some Stanley. They need to win this year before we can even think about them having the best dynasty. There are some people who might even make the argument the Chicago Blackhawks still have a better dynasty than the Tampa Bay Lightning. Remember, they got three cops, including one against the Tampa Bay Lightning. So, yeah, let's slow our role here before we say they're the best dynasty in hockey history. I think you're just trying to start a fire, my man.

No, no, no, no. And my whole point was, as we, look, the whole point of this segment was, let's look ahead to some potential big stories of the year, right? And you're ready to crowd a dynasty on the 2001. Yeah, but my, okay, so here, and again, listen to my word. If. I said if. I didn't say when. I said if.

I don't know. You sound like you were ready to say when, not if. No. Answer, then riddle me this. Sure. If Tampa Bay wins the Stanley Cup this year, you name me a more impressive dynasty in hockey history. What is it?

What's more impressive and why? It's the late 70s for the Canadians. They kept winning every year. Here's the thing. We can't discount the fact. that, like, for example, five is more than three. Like, it's still cool to win more than two or three cups in a row. And if you were able to do it of a certain length, like, that's still impressive.

Like, like, just because the Miami Heat won back-to-back championships with LeBron James and the big three that they had, doesn't mean that I'm going to find a win and say they're better than the Boston Celtics. Like, let's calm down. Just because the Lakers had those three beats. And do you know how to count to five? Yeah. Like, come on. Yeah.

Oh, oh, wow. You know what? You guys are right. Winning five straight Stanley Cups in a six-team league when all of your players, like Jean-Belho is handed to you, you're right. You know what? You're right. You're right.

You guys are totally right. Here we go. Five straight cups in a six-team league. Yeah, you're right. I apologize. I was just trying to make fun of Ian. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

You know what it is? You know what it is? When you're a guy like Ian met. When you're a guy like Ian Mended. Here's the thing, I don't have a dog in this fight either. So the fact that you're saying a noted Habs fan, like, I don't have a dog in this fight. Like, I just, I'm just trying to look at history. But you know what it is when you're a guy like Ian Mendez and you're in a market like Ottawa as long as you have that is not really seen all that much women.

I can understand why you get a little crazy. I get it. I get it. He went there. That's no shape to say. That's no shake to Sanders fans. There are some of the best fans in the NHL when, and I understand the attendance sometimes in the market where the arena is. Sometimes it doesn't reflect that.

But some sense fans are some of the best fans we have in the National Hockey League. They've put together some of the better teams we've seen, more fun teams we've seen in the 21st century. Look at some of the players who are doing really well in other teams. The Ottawa Senators found a way to cultivate them. But man, like, you're just not around that winning. I get it. I understand. It happens.

You get a little loopy sometimes, but it's okay. Hey, I've never, I've never seen a team in my lifetime from my market with a Stanley Cup. You know, so I get it too. But at least I know what's happened. Wow. And that was the last time you've ever here. Julian McKenzie on the Monday show. Very much.

What happened to the Ian? The Ian show. We all had it in our names and now we've just, we've all divided. We've all divided. I don't think Ian has ever yelled at me in the year and a half. We've been doing this show. So Julian, congratulations. Exactly.

Okay. You know what we need, though? Moving on. Next segment. Next segment. Okay. Here's what we need. We need some New Year's resolutions, gang.

in the hockey world. Let's reunite here. Let's find some commonality amongst the three of us. And I'm going to start with this. What if we all resolve as hockey fans and we got to get the NHL on board with this, but they got to start listing the standings based on points percentage. New Year's resolution, gang, we start listing the standings based on points percentage rather than points because that's the more accurate reflection of where teams are running. Are you on board with this? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, like in a normal year, when it's just an 82 game season, whatever, like, sure, look at it by points because the discrepancy in games played, it can get bigger, but it's never more than like five unless something unforeseen happens. But right now, like, it's been driving me kind of crazy in this market right now with the flames. Like, when they were coming back from their shutdown, people were like, oh,

Look at how great Vegas has been playing. The flames are five points back. I'm like, Vegas has six more games. No. What are you doing? No. Of course they have more points. They have played way more. And they have won like three of them, two of them. You know, look at points percentage and the flames are the best points percentage in the Pacific Division still, even when they were shut down for two weeks. It's like, what are we doing? That is a much more accurate way to be looking at things. Ducks have more points in the Calgary Flames. They got some road to make up. No, they don't.

No, they don't. You win one more game when you come back and you've got more points in them because you're five games behind them. It bothers me. And Dom got mad of you for this a couple weeks ago, too. Oh, whoa. No, he didn't get mad. But I think we had this discussion a few weeks ago. And we brought up, like, this team has the most points.

And Dom was like, I'm going to stop you right there. Stop going by points. Yeah. But I agree. I think that points percentage is a more accurate barometer of where teams should be at in the standings than just total points in a year like this more specifically, I think. Yeah, that was the thing I was going to bring up because I think last year, I think I remember Pure LeBron tweeting something along those lines. And I remember asking aloud on Twitter, like, is this something we should be doing? Like, generally, like with the way that COVID is affecting games and schedules, like, We kind of touched on it a little bit earlier, but like, are we so sure that all these teams are going to be able to finish their seasons?

It might be the legitimate or the best way to, you know, see how well a team is stacked up to anyone else. I'm all for it if it truly is the best way to see if a team is better or not. So, yeah, I guess the NHL wake up. Don't have everyone looking at points. Look at points percentage. The HL looks at points percentage. So why can't we do that in the NHL? Okay.

Look, we've got, we're back all on the same page now. We're all unanimous. Let's move towards points percentage to look at the standings. Okay, next item I want to throw at you. New Year's resolution for all teams in the NHL, because this is the perfect time to do it, because the pandemic has sort of, you know, we've moved towards social distancing and some different things.

We've got to end kiss cams. I say We haven't already? No, they're still around. The odd one is still around. I say, are you on board with this? We end the kiss cam at NHL games in all 32 venues.

Because I think I'm done with it. I think it makes it impossible to go to a game with your sibling. It's awkward. You know what I'm saying? So yes, I say, New Year's resolution, we ban the kiss cam.

Have you ever awkwardly been put on the kiss cam? Yeah. Has that happened to you? You sound like you're speaking from experience. No. Did you go to a game with your sister? No, it has not happened to me. It has not happened to me.

I'm just saying, can you imagine? The awkwardness. The awkwardness. You see it sometimes where the guys just like, that's my sister. And then the whole crowd laughs and laughs. And then they find another unsuspecting couple to put on there. Yeah. I think it's still funny when it's like two people, I mean, whether they're siblings or just two people who are just platonic and they're just kind of sitting there awkwardly like, so are we going to have to do this now?

Also, the biggest argument for eliminating kiss cams, if people are supposed to be sitting there with their masks on, I guess that kind of kills that, right? Oh, can Pete, the kiss with the mask on? I see people to do that. I'm like, is that supposed to be cute? I was so angry. Is this supposed to be cute pandemic thing? Stop it. Just wait till you get home.

Damn. Anyways. Actually, we should also lump public proposals in there, I guess, maybe, right? Oh, yeah. Those are just uncomfortable. Unless you're doing something creative and different, don't. Don't propose during the kiss cam or like on the JumboTron or whatever. The one that I thought was like kind of cute and super fun.

And I forget which basketball team it was. But they like, it was one of the cheer, it was one of the dancers. And they played the Bruno Mars song instead of the actual song. And like everyone else starts doing a completely different dance. And this dancer is just like trying to mimic them because she's like, I don't know what dance is. Oh my God. Oh, no. And then all of a sudden her fiance comes out and proposes.

It was really cute. I was like, you know what? That's a good one. But just like, will you marry me? And then the girl like runs away, you know? Imagine your girlfriend runs away from you in the middle of the past golden. And you're just sitting there with your knee on the sticky ass ground popcorn and everything. No.

We got to leave those public proposals in a whole other different century because nothing is more embarrassing than you plotting this amazing proposal at some big venue. And then you girl or your partner just looks at you and they're just like, no. There was like some story I came across a couple years ago where I think there was like a Yankees game where a couple, they were just like hanging out there. And then like one guy got up to propose to his girl and he dropped the ring. And like everyone in the section was like looking for it. And I think inside addition followed up with a couple. They eventually found the ring and he proposed and she said yes. But I think it was Inside Edition who found the couple like years later.

And then they were talking about how like the relationship just like deteriorated. And like how like one person's all like, no, this person like person I thought I was going to be with this person for life. They ended up being a completely different person. That's a whole other thing you have to discuss too. The notoriety that comes from doing those things. If your relationship falls apart and you have to deal with that, I don't know about that. I can't feel of the fame. No, absolutely not.

You know what? You bring up an interesting point. Look, we all know, like, the divorce rates on the average marriage is like 50%, right? Like, whatever it is. Divorce. Right? Isn't that what it is? Ballpark 50%.

Something like that, yeah. Okay. Jesus. What do you think the divorce? What do you think the divorce rate is on marriages that start with like a public stunt proposal? I'm thinking 80%. I think it's on the pot. It's like competing with the same.

same level as for like contestants on the Bachelor Bachelorette. I think it's at the same ballpark. 80%. Oh, man. Like I would, look, if I'm blessed to have a partner in this life and be with them for the rest of my life, I would love to be in a position where I could have the most low key thing. I mean, obviously, still nice, but I don't need no big stadium showy thing. Make it nice.

Make it personal. Make it like amazing. But like, I don't need to show my affection that way. I don't know. That's how I see it. Like, I don't need to. I don't need to take my girl to some game and then have everyone on the Jumbotron be like, will you, will you take me as, you know, your part?

I don't know how to shit goes. Will you marry me? See, I don't even know how to do that. That's why. Jesus, dude. Jesus. That's, it started off so well and you're like, will you, will you? Will you?

In space right now. I was just like, what is happening? I'm sorry, man. Oh, man. You're bringing a really fresh energy this Monday. We love it. And I'm sick too. I'm sorry.

Okay. But look, it's, it's, uh, the vibes are good in 2022. One more thing. We've said potentially, we've said goodbye to the kiss cam. We've said goodbye to, uh, maybe in the stadium, in arena proposals. Do either of you have a strong feeling on whether or not it's time to say goodbye to the wave? Like, do you care? I don't really care.

But I see some people are really. really angry when they're like, it's time to get rid of the wave. I don't really care, to be honest with you. Like, I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other, but some people seem really adamant that it's time to stamp out the wave from sporting events. And I want to know, should that be a New Year's resolution? Get rid of the wave. Okay. So earlier this year, it was in Calgary. I think it was like a tie game against Dallas. I don't remember. exactly who it was against. Maybe it wasn't tied. I don't know. But anyways, basically, the fans in the Saddle Dome start doing the wave. And I was about to tweet like, oh, no,

they're doing the wave. And then before I could send tweet, they got scored against and, like, lost the game. And so then everyone's like, not the wave. Like, the wave claims another victim. Like, not again. So it just sometimes it feels like the wave, like, do people try to do it as like a rally cap situation. It's like, let's do the wave. Let's turn the tides. Go team. And then like nothing good happens. My problem with the wave is it looks a little weird. And like you're not really cheering while you're doing the wave. Like it's kind of noisy in there and there's like things happening. But like if you want to do something for the team you're cheering for, like why don't you just do like a go sends go or like a chant or something? Like do you think the players are

looking and being like, well, there's a wave in the stands? I don't know. I don't know. man. I don't know. I find people who make such a big deal about the wave being bad. I just think it's, I think we need to do a resolution to stop those people. Look, let fans do what they want.

I mean, not everything because I don't know if you guys remember last year of those NBA games when people start throwing stuff, that's like, okay, we got to cool that now. So we can't have fans do everything. Let fans do their fun, they're fun, cute, innocent stuff. Yeah, that's fine. And I think the wave is a

part of that. I have no problem with doing the wave. I have done the wave a few times in my life. Like, what's wrong with doing the wave? Whether your teams win or your teams losing? Just having a good time, you know? Like, look, when we get to a point where we're in Canada, we're allowed to be back in arenas and whether it's NHL arenas, CFL stadiums, anything like that, we should not be complaining about not being able to do the wave. That should be the last thing we should be doing. Perspective. I think we abolish the drop pass on the power play.

Leave that in 2021, please. Every fan base is convinced that their team is the only one that stop doing the drop pass on the power play. This is such a unique issue. It never works. And it never works, 100%. Yeah. It's fine.

It is just, it is not the most effective way to enter the zone on the powerplay, okay? That's all I've got to say is if you only have one guy you can enter the zone on the power play and you're consistently dropping it back to them in the neutral zone, I get a little grumpy. If a team gets a bunch of power plays and you see the same thing, like I get it. I get it. I understand why fans get annoyed with that. If you can't enter the zone and you have like one way of doing it.

But it's real, I love that some fan bases think it's like a unique. like this market. Like, why do we always do this? Everyone does. It's a perspective thing, man. I've watched the Canadians for most of this year. There are times they couldn't even enter the zone at even strength. Like, geez.

Ooh. Yeah. It was bad. They had bad transition play. And every fan base is also convinced that their team never scores on five on three power plays. Right? We don't ever score on five on three. We can't score.

Nobody ever has before. Yeah. Nobody has ever. scored. And every fan base is also convinced that if you're playing a team and a guy on the other team has never scored his first NHL goal, it's going to

be against your team. Like, oh, we always give up. Just go ahead and book it. They're scoring their first goal against us. I have a question. As someone who resides in Quebec, one thing I see a lot that happens is whenever the Canadians play against a team that is starting

a Quebec goaltender, a lot of fans start to immediately assume, okay, they're playing at home, they're going to find a way to beat the Canadians. Is this something that happens for Ontarians and Albertans and other parts of Canada and other parts of the NHL landscape? Does that happen? Is that something people worry about? Yeah, like yesterday, the flames were playing against Chicago and Mark Andre Fleury was backing up because he just got out of COVID protocol. And I forget the guy's name, but it was like his first start or something or like his first role being a starter in Chicago. And there was a couple

Flames fans on Twitter being like, well, we're going to get goalied by this kid we've never heard of before because it's happened before. Like, it's a thing. Like, I don't fault fan basis for that. I think being a fan is, I don't know, I'm sure there's like a lot of fun in that. There's probably just a lot of pain too and being a sports fan, especially when you feel like your team hasn't won anything in so long. So I don't want people to listen. to this and think we're being like, fans are so silly, we all appreciate you. And we would all be doing the exact same things if we weren't. Let's be honest.

If we weren't writing about these teams professionally, I'm sure we would just be, I would be as unhinged as some fans that I'm not even calling people unhinged. I'm unhinged. It's fine. No. Yeah. Let's stop burning jerseys. Let's stop doing that.

Yeah. Stop burning them. Stop throwing them on the ice. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I think if you're going to say stop burning jerseys, I think I agree with Julian. Throwing them on the ice is probably just... It's lame. It's one step below it, but it's...

I don't know, yeah. I think it's been played. I like the waffles in Toronto years ago. That was funny because it was just like, the hell is somebody throwing an egg-o waffle on the ice. But anyway, I think throwing things on the ice. Do you guys know how they bring in the catfishes? Catfish?

No. I'd like to know. I'd like to know. It's like the squid in Detroit, right? You stuff it in your hands. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

So the squid, too. I was in Detroit earlier this year. And this show was off the rails, but whatever. It doesn't matter. It's not like anything's happened. I was in Detroit earlier this year. And I was with Max Boltman, who does a great job covering the Red Wings. And Sean Shapiro, who does an okay job covering business.

Just kidding. Wow. I'm not my own joke. Wow. Is this really what goes on every Monday? Damn, just throw it out sass? Yeah, pretty much. But usually it's just directed at Ian.

Yeah, damn. And anyways, I was like, how do people bring the squid in? And they said that people will, like, bare body, like, on their stomach, they will saran wrap the squid to, like, their chest or their stomach. And then put on, like, a shirt and then a sweater. and then their jersey. And so you're going through security and you're just wearing a lot of layers.

But there's like a squid on your bare body. Why is no one saying anything? See, I would wrap myself. No, I would wrap myself. First, I would do a, I would wrap myself in saran. Then I would put the squid on. Then I would do another layer of saran. I don't think I would go squid on body directly.

But that's just me. But then, Ian, that's two. much saran wrap, how are you going to get the squid to throw it? Then you're going to be like, oh my God, unsurranging for a while. I have a question. So there's no way that like people in Detroit don't like this because the very first thing that would set me off that somebody's bringing in a squid is the smell. This must smell, right? Like you must be going to having all these people enter the arena and be like, damn, somebody smells like a fish. You, it's you. You are the man who's going to bring it an octopus in here.

How is that not a dead rigor for anything? That's how I know that's not a problem for these arenas when they do that sort of stuff or whether it's like a natural catfish or whatever. Like that's something that people are just cool with. I think the catfish is more upsetting than the squid. I don't know why, but there's something about the catfish that I'm like, I don't like it. The squid is probably slimy and gross too, but something about the catfish. It's got those little things.

You just have like on your body. It's just like tickling you as you like walk through your arena. Something about a dead fish. on your body. Yeah, I'm not doing any of that. Why would you do? Here's the thing. If you want to do it, because just in the spirit of what we were saying earlier,

the cute fun stuff that fans do, if that's what you want to do, that's what you should do. But that can't be neat. So ran wrap that squid to your body. Do it. Yeah. We're an air freshener if you have to. And maybe go with a frozen. I love it.

Fans are great. Yeah. Fans are awesome. We love you guys. We love you very, very much. Except for the ones that yell at me about nothing. Oh, you have fans who yell at you about nothing? Oh, man.

Just kidding. That's okay. We love you guys. Thank you. I want to hit on this. Speaking of fans, there was about 60,000, 70,000, whatever, right packed in to watch the outdoor game on the weekend at Target Field. Actually, it was a little less than that. But I want to talk about that game a little bit from a couple of perspective.

First of all, were you surprised? In the past, they've often given the outdoor game. The Winter Classic has been given its own canvas, meaning it's the only game in its time slot. And it's, this year felt different. Like, it was going head to head with a Toronto Maple Leaf's nationally televised game in Canada. It wasn't even on the main network here. It seemed a little odd to me, at least north of the border,

that it wasn't given its own canvas. Did that strike either of you as odd? Like, should they have, should they be doing a better, I know it sounds silly to say, should they be promoting the Winter Classic more? But I feel like there's a more effective way to do it. And giving it its own time slot would be the way to go. But that's just like, I just personally for me, I was having this exact debate with C.J. On the Chris Johnston show, which you can check out on the F-LIN.

But yeah, I just, it doesn't make sense to me that you have this event, which has been dressed up to be the marquee event to start off the new year. And you have it at the exact same time as a Leafs. Senators game. Yes, a Battle of Ontario. Fierce battles, but also in this particular instance, so many guys on COVID protocol and no one's in the, barely anyone's in the arena to really check it out. Yeah, thank you for bringing up that excellent point. You have to go on like SportsNet 1 in Canada to watch the Winter Classic. Like, I thought it was a little weird. And I think it should be an event that has its own slot just away from everything else. I understand that weather plays a role in

too. This is a game that we were used to seeing play in the middle of the day. They probably tried to avoid any issues by having it on the night. But the problem with that is if you're going to have other NHL games on, that's going to take away from it. Is it not? Not only that, considering what else is happening in the United States, it's college bowl season. I don't know about you guys, but I wasn't watching Leafs and Senators at the same time as the Winter Classic. I was watching the Rose Bowl. And the Rose Bowl was, I mean, that was one of the best Rose Bowl's we've ever seen. That was an amazing game. But yeah, like, that's a problem that the NHL's going to have to deal with. And I'm pretty sure they've already had to fend that off

in previous years with how the college football season goes about its year. I don't think you need to put themselves in any position where they need to be competing with, you know, a sugar bowl, an orange bowl, a Rose Bowl, or anything like that. I know I'm going off for the different sport, but the Winter Classic should be heralded as this big event. And maybe they need to change around some of the teams too to also help that. But I didn't like the idea of it kind of going head to head with so many other NHL games and so many other premier sporting events in the sporting calendar. Yeah, I don't know if I really remember, like when I was before I started working and like,

I've said this before, like I was a pretty big Penguins fan when I was younger. And I remember, and maybe it was just because I was a fan of the team and I was younger. And, you know, they've got the retros and it's like some of the first few times they're doing the winter Classic. Like, I would remember you watch the HBO series because it's like, wow, like this incredible look that we never really get to see, um, that 24-7 series. And then, you know, that's the really, I don't remember ever watching anything else but the Winter Classic on New Year's Day when I was, you know, still watching games.

Like you watch, um, that first one that the penguins, I think of the first one was in Buffalo. Yeah, that's where Crosby won in the shootout. Crosby wanted the shootout. They're wearing those baby blues again. Like it's a great jersey. Like it's snowing. Crosby's the star. Like that was a great winter classic.

And it was the first one. So there's a little bit of that to it. But like even the next couple then I think Penguins Caps had one. That was really good. I just, I remember Detroit, Chicago was great. Like I remember that was always like the one thing that I watched. And I don't know if that was just because I was like a very. like a big hockey fan and I was like this is what I'm going to do on New Year's Day or if like there's

been a shift maybe it's because there's it's been going on for so long and and maybe it's because of the teams that are happening. I also think the marketing and the scheduling of it is is a thing. And again, I wish we could go back and look at the schedule in like 2010, 2009, but I don't remember there being other games on during the Winter Classic. Yeah. And I might be wrong, but there was like a full schedule. Yeah, exactly. And usually, and those winter classic games like Sid and the Snow Globe game, those are in the afternoon. Yeah, exactly. And this one was a little bit different. I do want to just point out, I don't know why I said, it was 38,000 people in change that were at Target field to watch that game. So just under 40,000 people watched it. Did either of you, when you were

either watching the game of the highlights, what did you think of that, that plywood? Like, it was, to me, it looked like unfinished wood around the board. And then they justified it by saying, no, we wanted to give it a real Minnesota feel, like an outdoorsy feel. It looked odd to me. And I don't know that it translated well to TV. Did either of you, did that catch your eye, the kind of unfinished plywood along the boards? I didn't notice. Is that a Minnesota thing?

I didn't even notice. I don't know. They're trying to make like a log cabin type of thing, I guess. I don't know. The one thing I noticed that a lot of people did was during the second interming. and there was going to be this big announcement of the U.S. Women's Olympic roster. And they talked over it the whole time. And for somebody like me who covers women's hockey, you look on the screen, you're like,

okay, there's Brianna Decker, there's Amanda Kessel, there's your usual suspect. Maddie Rooney's back into the fold. Oh, there's Hannah Brand. Because I cover the team. I watch them all the time. But like, how is somebody who's just getting into women's hockey going to look at that? There's no nameplates. There's no graphics.

It's just like the commentators talking over these women waving. Like, how are they supposed to know who that is? Like, that is, and a lot of people were really mad about it online. A lot of people in women's hockey circles were really frustrated because it's like, this is your big announcement. Like, you're talking over it. You're not even going to let the PA announcer play over the broadcast. Like, they didn't name the roster on the broadcast.

They did an interview segment with Jen Botterl, who is obviously, a very decorated Olympian for Team Canada. And Jen's great. But they were interviewing her during it. And it was like, who's on the team? And they put a graphic up after. And a lot of people are really frustrated about that. And I agree. Like, that is not, like, you've got to at least name the roster. Let the PA guy go over the broadcast. Like, hear who these women are. Get people excited. Talk about them. Get people excited about it. I find that was a really great thing I found during the World Championships is when you start doing stories on who the players are, people don't always know who they are, what their story is, where they played. And if you can

give people backstory into who they are, it makes it more enjoyable for people who are just getting in to learn. If you can know that Sarah Filier scored almost two points per game in her rookie season at Princeton and is going to be the next Mary Philippe-Pelaine, you're going to be able to watch Sarah Filier and be like, oh my gosh, yeah, that's totally true. You learn little nuggets and that's how you grow the game and get people into it. Doing an interview segment over top of it isn't. I will say, though, broadcasting those winter classic games seem like a gong show. There are so many different elements that go into trying to do that kind of broadcast. I think a lot of people were really, really mad at TNT. And it was like, I think we need to

be careful here. Did they try to broadcast it over? Like, was there an issue with the PA? Like, they're in the, it's minus like 25 degrees out there. Like the timing's off. The tech is different. Like broadcasting those games outside is not easy. So I, I thought it was unfortunate to see, but I also think we probably need to consider the circumstances of trying to broadcast a game in the middle of the winter in Minnesota when it's really cold.

I don't know. Better than I could have ever put it. I was watching and waiting for that. and I know there was other people too who put that game on to watch that intermission to see who was going to represent their country on the biggest stage and try to win back-to-back gold medals.

Like that is very significant for people. And they didn't even get to hear the players' names. Not great. Yeah. And to me, maybe that's another great resolution for the hockey world is to put more effort from mainstream media

and people like Julian and myself and men to really figure out how do we help promote women's hockey? hockey and what do we do with our platforms, right? And that's, I think that's a, that's a huge thing that we can all look forward to in, in 2022. As we're getting to the end of the show here, and this is just, these hours flown by here. Since we've been on, of course, the World Junior Hockey Championship got canceled in

Edmonton and Red Deer and I don't, I don't want to get into how could they let the bubble. We're all tired of that talk. What I do want to talk about, and Corey Pranman had an article in Monday's edition of, or his Monday article, talking about potentially. alternative dates for the World Junior Championships. Could they do it in this summer? Let me ask you this question.

I want you to both put yourself in Shane Wright's skates for a moment, okay? Because he's the consensus number one pick. If they decide to push the W.IHF World Junior Hockey Championships to June, let's say it's just before the draft. If you're Shane Wright, would you bother playing in that because, like, I think of it Julian almost like, you know NCAA players who at the end of their career, they're like, I'm not playing in that bowl game.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. I kind of feel like if I'm Shane, right, as much as an honor it would be to play for Canada, if it's June and I'm like two weeks before my draft and I know I'm going, what am I doing here? Why risk the injury? So if I'm him, I say no. And then you start to ask yourself,

well, is it worth putting on a tournament in June if a number of prominent players go down that road? I don't even think it's worth personally just putting that tournament on at that point. I mean, I look at the world juniors. I think from the standpoint as a big money-making event for TSN, for example, from a Canadian standpoint here. One big reason why they're able to make all that money, it's at a random point around Christmas time where a lot of people like to kind of settle down

and just be with their families. It's a big money-making event, and people might not want to tune into their NHL team nearly as much compared to what it'll be like for the home stretch. So it's an easy way for them to get eyeballs. If they put this in June, like, what are they going to do? Like, put it after the Stanley Cup final when people are tapped out. Like, I don't like that idea. And I think for the players involved, like, if I'm Shane Wright, I'm secure in the bag.

Like, I'm not participating. I'm not messing myself up just so I could, you know, say I participated in some World Junior Hockey Championship. We know the packaging tree of it. We know how big of a deal it is. But he has an opportunity to be drafted first overall and be healthy and try to contribute to an NHL franchise. Don't put him in a position where he suffers some big injury. And I get injuries happen. And I get it could still happen as he plays in the NHL.

But it's a lot different when you find yourself injured with some injury. And again, not wishing injuries anyway, but it's a lot different when you're injured playing for an NHL team after you sign the contract compared to just before. And could you imagine any player putting themselves in a position, especially if they're like a top 10 pick in the upcoming NHL draft? like, you know, put themselves at risk playing in a tournament like that. It doesn't make sense to me. I also understand that there is the ELC as it is. And it's a bit standardized. But it doesn't make sense to me if I was Shane Wright to play in a tournament before I was supposed to be taken first or for all in the NHL draft.

I'd rather just skip that. Yeah, I think just in the world juniors in general, I think we have to kind of decide what is the underlying reason behind rescheduling. Is it because Hockey Canada and I, like they want, they need to make the money back to be able to host other events? Like the IHF and hockey Canada. Is it a financial reason that they're going to reschedule? Is it for these players for the good of the game,

for the good for these players who won't get a chance to do it again? Is it for drafting and scouting? Like I think, and depending on which road you go down will kind of drive. like when and if this gets rescheduled, right? Like if this is to make money, this is not, and we know it's important. We know the financial aspect is important. Like the World Juniors funds, the World Juniors and the Men's World Championship helps fund other tournaments throughout the year.

If that is the underlying, like, piece to this, then we're not going to see this tournament rescheduled like in a month from now because there's still not going to be full capacities. There's no way. If it's rescheduled in Alberta, for example, it's going to be. me 50% capacity with no concessions. You're not going to make money doing that. So they're going to have to wait until a point in time where you can have a full building and you're probably going to want an NHL building. So are you going to be trying to host that in Calgary when the flames are potentially in the playoffs? Are you trying to host it in

Edmonton when the Oilers are potentially in the playoffs? Like trying to reschedule this to a point in time in the hockey calendar when they're going to be able to have a full barn to make money is going to be quite difficult because you've got playoff schedules. It's the summer. Is there going to be burnout? I thought that the women's world championships being in August actually kind of rocked. Like, I loved that. But in terms of the NHL, like, is the player going to get drafted and then play in the world junior championships? Probably, probably not. Like, it's just, yeah, it's just, sorry, Julian, like, it's just not like an easy answer. and if you're rescheduling it for the good of the players, well, then why didn't you have,

you better reschedule the women's U-18 for the good of the players. Like if you're all of a sudden saying, like, we've got to do this for them. And it's not for money. Well, you've got to do it for the other group too. But we know it's money. So we know that this probably isn't going to come to the summer when they can have a full building. But then like we just discussed, there's a bunch of other stuff with that.

Isn't the Memorial Cup like around that time too? And I know I kind of brought up the fact that like, I don't know if I want to play in a tournament before I'm supposed to get taken in the draft. But at least with the Memorial Cup, that's the team you've been drafted to play on. Like, fine. It's not like college or anything like that. You're at least, you know, that's contributing at least to your time to make the NHL at least. Could you imagine being a situation where you play a Memorial Cup, then a World Junior Hockey Championship? Man.

And is there going to be a draft combine this year? Like that's in the summer calendar too. Like, what's this summer going to look like? Do we need to see how high Shane Wright can jump? If he can hit that little thing when he jumps up and hits the who I don't. Maybe we don't. But like they still have to go through it. I think the interviews are an important part of that process though.

The interviews for sure. They are sitting down with the teams, right? Yeah. And just getting their fitness testing before they get to the NHL so you can get a baseline of, I know you mean. And like when Stan Bennett couldn't do a pull up. Everyone's like, it was a huge deal. Yeah.

Okay, gang, going to wrap up this show with a little multiple choice madness to kick off the new year. Okay, a couple of questions here. We'll rip through them. We'll start with this. If the Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup, are they the greatest dynasty of all? No, I'm joking. Okay. That one's not real.

Okay. This one is real. We're talking outdoor games here. If the NHL, if I gave you carte blanche to do whatever you wanted with the outdoor game, And the NHL said you can go somewhere unique and different to host a winter classic. Where would you like it to be staged? I'm going to give you a few options here. A, in the mountains, Lake Louise, Alberta.

B, Central Park in New York City. C, what about a backdrop like the White House in Washington on the lawn there or in the front lawn of Parliament Hill? What about D? You say, you know what? Screw the humidity. We're going to South Beach. We're going to give it a whirl in Florida. or E, what if they just went somewhere overseas? I'm thinking like a Hyde Park in London,

you try and figure out, can you get the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop? I'm going to give you choice to go anywhere in the world to play one fun outdoor game. What are you picking? Julian. The first venue that comes to mind is Wembley in England. We play some of the biggest football games there.

Now we're seeing NFL games there. Why not just make it an HL games there? I would, I think that would just be hilarious. to see. Haley? That's cool. I'm going, I'm obviously very biased. The first time I went to Banff, like Lake Louise, Canmore, the first time I went into the Rocky Mountains, it was incredible.

Like, I've skated out there. Like, I don't know if I've ever seen anything more beautiful. And I don't know if it's possible, I think, logistically, et cetera, that's not going to be easy to put stands in Lake Louise or anything like that. But if you could do a hockey game in the mountains, a Battle of Alberta in Lake Louise or Bamp or something, like, like I'm there like every day of the week. It's going to be cold, but it's just incredible. So I'm biased, but I'm going, I'm going Rocky Mountains. Hey, they did it at Lake Tahoe, right?

Like they set up a venue there. And I, the sun was hot. The sun was the enemy, as we all remember, Gary Betman's head. You know what I would do? I would, I would take this sucker overseas. Like Julian said, go find a spot. Have you ever seen that picture? It's this random picture from the early 20th century.

the Chicago White Sox went to play a game at the pyramids of Egypt. I think they played like the Giants. And it's like, are you serious? Yeah. It's like from 1910 or something like that. I love like I would love the NHL to go do that. Go find their spot somewhere.

Go do something totally different and see what, you know, see what comes about. I love the idea of a unique backdrop. Okay. One more multiple choice question here to wrap it up. As as the calendar flips to 2022, I was just looking at, some of the playoff matchups as they currently stand right now. Now, I should point out, I didn't do this based on points percentage, even though that was my New Year's vow.

This is just based on the current NHL standings. But these are all plausible matchups that could occur in the first round. I want to know, as it currently stands, which one of these, if you had to pick one, which would be the most interesting first round matchup in the Stanley Cup playoffs if it came to fruition later this year? is it A, Florida against Toronto, B, Tampa against Pittsburgh, or C, Vegas and Edmonton, Haley.

What would be out of those three matchups, you'd be like, oh, wow, I'm not sure I can miss any of that series. What would it be for you? I don't know. I was thinking you'd be going more for like a Tampa, Florida vibe or like Calgary Edmonton vibe. It's not, none of those are very good.

It's not as it's currently, stands, those aren't the matchups. Oh, right. You're looking at the standings. Yeah, I'm looking at the standings. Tampa Pittsburgh would be interesting because the penguins have lost in the first round the last couple years, while Tampa is, you know, potentially going to be the next great dynasty against one of the current good dynasties.

Can you say that about the penguins? I don't know. Florida, Toronto would be great, too, because the Panthers have been really good and everyone yells about the Toronto Maple Leafs losing in the first round. So those two would probably be interesting. Vegas, Edmonton would, I mean, Vegas would probably just win. I'm picking Vegas and Edmonton for one reason. Connor McDavid versus Jack Eichael.

Oh, I forgot about Jack Eichael. Love it. Yep. Yeah. Yep. That's easy for me. McDavid versus Eichael, one versus two, who wins in a playoff series. Oh, that's a good one.

It's a good thing you're here, Julian, because I forgot about his existence. I sometimes forgot about him, too. It only occurred to me like five seconds ago. I shouldn't admit that. As we wrap up the show, hey, you know what? Jack Eichol's return is certainly one of the stories to monitor for 2020. How did we forget? It takes Julian.

Can we re-record the top? Let's re-record the whole show and realize, hey, Jack Eichael coming back. All right. Hey, we'll have to leave it there. Gang, hope you had as much fun listening to this as the three of us had putting this together because this was a ton of fun. The hour and a bit just flew by. Listen, we'll do this again real soon and have a great week, gang.

Peace. Thanks. All right, thanks, everybody for listening to this first edition of the Athletic Hockey Show here in 2022. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review. You know, we certainly appreciate that. You can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus.

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