The Athletic Hockey Show - Bill Daly on Jack Eichel, Evander Kane, the new US NHL TV contract and the Seattle Kraken, Storylines conclude as Tampa Bay Lightning look to 3-peat

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner of the National Hockey League joins Craig Custance and Sean Gentille to address some of the major storylines in the NHL, as the league gets set to begin a new season beginning Tuesday night. Bill discusses the ongoing issues between the Buffalo Sabres and Jack Eichel, the legal issues for Evander Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks franchise, and the debut of the NHL's 32nd team, the Seattle Kraken. Plus Bill talks about how excited the league and the their fans are with ESPN and TNT taking over the NHL television contract in the United States.Joe Smith from the Athletic Tampa Bay stops by to conclude the Athletic Hockey Show's storyline feature, as the two time defending Stanley Cup champions look to 3-peat, with head coach Jon Cooper freshly signed to a three year extension.Finally, Craig and Sean pick their team for the officepools.com challenge between Ian, Hailey, Down Goes Brown, Max, Corey and the new Wednesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show.Join The Athletic Hockey Show’s official fantasy hockey pool on OfficePools.com: http://www.officepools.com/invite/classic/m/HAFE2H6QAnd, right now, you can save 50% on an annual subscription to The Athletic when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, this is Craig Custins, joined by Sean Gentile on Monday. It's Monday, Sean. What are we doing recording the American edition of the Athletic Hockey Show on a Monday? Can you explain to me what's happening now? Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Happy what? Thanksgiving. All right. So the thing about Canadian Thanksgiving, I figured this out over the last 10 years. It's like the Schrodinger's cat of holidays. It's, it is it is, it is, it, it is. It, it is. is like it exists kind of like it's on four days but on no days it like extends over a weekend people eat on different at different times like I'm still I'm still trying to figure it out well we we're doing our part to sell we're not celebrating it of course because it's not a real holiday but we're doing our part to help our Canadian friends Ian and Haley who would normally be recording today give them the day off for whatever because they apparently celebrate this this holiday this Canadian this Canadian Thanksgiving that's what you called it that's what it's

happy happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all of our let's thank you to the Canadians listening who are are just flummoxed why we're on and they were expecting Haley and I hope you don't shut it off hope you had a great Thanksgiving and however it's celebrated in your various traditions we are going to roll forward though we're very excited to have Joe Smith here with us on the pod Joe how are you first of all doing well and I didn't really know it was like Thanksgiving until I looked at Slack and people's messages were at the big turkey on it. Of course you did.

When you have to put something before the holiday, it's probably at the same, you know, Canadian Thanksgiving. Just say Thanksgiving. We can have you, we can actually have you back on, on Canadian Christmas, which is on Halloween. Wait, wait, I don't think Canadians call it Canadian Thanksgiving, Joe, do they? Because I always know, like Ken Hawkins. Holland would always talk about, oh, he assesses his team in American Thanksgiving. You would always make that distinction.

And I was always like, American Thanksgiving. Why do, like, I think Canadians call American Thanksgiving, American Thanksgiving, and not just Thanksgiving. America is a spare point. I don't know. I'd like, we'd have to do some more research. Happy holidays regardless, all the Canadians. So everyone should have their Thanksgiving and, and their big turkey. Yes, I hope.

Happy for that. And so Joe concludes, we were doing our storylines lap around the league with all. all of the Athletic Pete writers or as many as we could cram onto this podcast. And we're concluding with the reigning champs times two and a bit of news today. John Cooper signs a contract extension with the lightning, just taking care of business, tidying up before the season starts. So let's start there, Joe. I mean, no-brainer.

I don't even know. Like, there's no debating here. I don't know. Probably should have at least two kinds. But, you know, you've gotten a note, John Cooper really well there. Why do you think it's been such a perfect fit? Well, I think the synergy there, you look at, you know, Julian Prysball, the GM, like he hired John Cooper back in 2010.

And they, along with Steve Eisenman, helped build that culture in the organization from the ground up, essentially. And so I think it's worked so well because they know each other and they have that same way they want to build the team, same kind of players at Juan. And they had a lot of patience, like, quite frankly, This was a no-brainer now, but, you know, after the sweep against Columbus, you know, he signed his, that was his last contract here, right? He signed a month before the sweep, a three-year extension. And so, like, you know, that was obviously a rewarding, you know, a faith. They thought they'd go far.

They, they lost in the four games and people wondered if he'd be on the hot seat, you know, you're signing extension. But, you know, I think they just rewarded his faith, their faith in their, in him. And he just evolved over time, you know, not just, he's obviously the same guy in a lot of ways. but when you get humbled like that, it was been amazing to watch him and the team kind of transform a bit into what they are now, which is a team that's, I think, has a decent chance of going for three.

Were there any, what were those demonstrable changes in him after that Blue Jacket series? Like, was there obvious stuff that happened or was it more subtle? I think they're more subtle. I mean, I think, you know, they as a team, not just him, but they had to recognize they had to make some changes in the way that they did things.

they were the greatest show on ice for so long. They were so dynamic and they led the league in the scoring. But I think they, starting with the coaching staff, setting the tone, they had to get the guys, the Kutrovs and them to play the way they need to play. And you saw that style really take form the next year, even though they struggled off the bat. And so the coaching staff had to have some really, you know, hard-to-heart-he meetings with players and try to figure out what they need to do.

And credit to the coaching staff for getting the guys to buy in. And once they had the rewarding with the first cup, then it became easy to sell it the next time, right? So once you saw the reward for that, they were able to kind of reinforce it. But, you know, it hasn't been quite the linear road to here. But now they're kind of chasing some rare air. What's your temperature of the team now?

Like, you could tell last year there was a drive to the lightning because they win the cop, but didn't really get to celebrate a, you know, people were even talking about ostrichs, which is obviously BS. Like they win the cop. Really, you could tell there was a hunger there to go. back to back to, not that you have to solidify a Stanley Cup win ever, but it did.

So how, when you get a temperature feel right now, where's, where's that drive? Where's the hangover? Where, where is this team mentally going into this year? Well, I think, you know, obviously there's a lot of hunger still. I think the guys has so much, I mean, as you guys saw, so much fun with the cup and actually had a chance to celebrate for the first time that they don't, they don't want to give it up. They feel it's their cup. They don't want to give it up. And I think there's a drive to be part of history, right? You've won two in a row. You're a special team. But now all of a sudden, you're part of kind of a rare air chance to be, you know, some of the best ever. And I think it also helps them in a way that they've made some changes in the roster, too. You lose guys like the Gord and the Goudreau and Coleman. And so it does hurt your team. But now you have to do it maybe a different way. You don't have that same recipe you can do it the year before. So I think that kind of energizes the group too, having guys like Belmar and Corey Perry, who's been a great fit, I think, so far. So I think, you know, sometimes change can be good in a sense of you,

it kind of takes away that kind of false sense that you could do it just the way you did before. So now that it'll kind of create some maybe some changes in the way they kind of do things to, as far as matchups or as far as guys you need to step up in different roles or whatever, that can be kind of a right kind of way to start this long challenge again. Who do you see replace, I mean, you talk, you just mentioned a line that's no longer with the team. Who do you see rising up and taking advantage of that opportunity this year? Yeah, I mean, I don't think there'll be the exact same kind of that line will play the same role previous.

But I think you have some interesting combinations here. You have Stamcoast and Colton and Corey Perry as a third line, quote, unquote, which is like 850 goals and a cup winning. That's a pretty good goal. That's a pretty good. You know, because if you do that, then you have the second line or whatever is Sorrelli, Killorn, and Joseph, you know, who stepped into that. And they can, you know, Sorrelli was a Selkie trophy finalist, or Kennedy a few years back. so they can do it. And so I think this year will be kind of, there'll be some nights where they have two third

lines, some nights where they have two fourth lines, some nights where they have kind of mix it up and around because they have, they're built such a different way. So I think the only line that's really going to be stable this year is the point, pull out and future offline. The rest will be kind of working the way in. So it's hard to tell who will be the guaranteed, you know, replacement for that gourd line. I think it'll be a different way they'll have to kind of construct it. But I think what I saw in the preseason is, you know, see guys like Corey Perry and

Stamco's together. It's been pretty fun. I think it's cool to get, it's interesting to get Sarelli away from Stamco's because their numbers together last year were like not great, right? I mean, they normalize in the playoffs and whatever, but there's, it's fair to wonder whether that was going to work. Now you pair him, you pair Stamco's with Colton, who's, you know, a little bit more of an offensively dynamic player and all that. That makes a ton of sense to me. And something I'm just going to be watching throughout the year is even more so than the past is Stamco's because he was good in the playoffs, you know, not to take anything away from him, but there were, there were times where it looked like he was coming up to the hill.

I think, I, I think. So I'm fascinated in that, like the aging curve with him and also kind of paired with, paired with Colton on a more offensively minded line than say with Sorrelli. Well, I think, too, he's, he's relatively healthy now. I mean, he had a orthoscopic knee surgery in like April last year before the playoffs. had something to get done there. And then I don't think he was completely himself. I think we'll be completely 100% anymore with all the surgeries.

But now you have him healthy. You have him a guy who wants to make the Canadian Olympic team. That's a kind of big carrot out there. He knows he has to get off to a strong start to have it be in consideration for that loaded roster. And, you know, yeah, maybe if you have in a different liner working with Corey, they have some chemistry. And, you know, he may not have to be the, like, in a kind of quote unquote, shutdown defensive role, you know, he'll still have the power play.

So, you know, from what we've seen in preseason, at least, he's looked good to me. And I think, you know, he may not be like the 50 goal score, but he can definitely, you know, the way he plays. And if he's healthy, he can be a dynamic for a lot of different places in the lineup. Do you think they can handle him just being an okay five-on-five player and a power play weapon? Like, if that's what he is moving forward, is that going to work for them or are they built for him to be where it's necessary for him to be more? Well, I think ideally, you know, a guy like him, you can, he's not your ninth forward in terms of total ice time five-on-five like he was in the playoffs last year. I mean, ideally, you know, that's not been his role in his career. He's had to kind of adjust and accept that.

But yeah, I think you'd like to have him more effective there. But I think the way the team is constructed in the lines that they have, they don't need him to be the, you know, top line center or top-line wing producer. They've got guys that they can be able to step in and play. And so if you have him on the powerplay And your power play is 24% for the season And he's bigger reason why Like all of a sudden you're going to be winning A lot of hockey games

And in the playoffs that can be a difference maker So I don't by no means am I saying He's done five on five Or he's you know He's surprised You see that Joe Stamp goes To toast at any of the head of mine right there

You know For all as good players you've been Yeah Yeah Can we record here Yeah He's a He's a

He's a You've definitely got years left here And I think he'd be a big deal for him this year going into the fall. I wonder if this is the year. It seems like the Braden Point appreciation parade always happens in the playoffs and we just ignore him for a regular season.

I wonder if this is the year we like, everyone's like, hey, this is, you know, with the Olympics and he's going to be a big part of that, presumably if this is the year, like we do a full on year round appreciation of the player he's become. I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe we just wait to get into the playoffs. It's a daily parade.

I think we should have daily Brady and Point Bridge. He would not show up for it. He would not, yeah, he would do it, man. He would, you know, he signed his extension on July 1st, I think with 9.5 million annual average, right? And he's, I think he's one of the best players in national hockey. I told me Craig before his first bubble run that he'd be the best player in the playoffs that year. Could have, could have won the, he could have won the cons to might, I think, the last couple years, if they weren't for the players, you know, on that team.

But he sent his extension. And so, you know, Barcoff had his extension. their day. They had this big party or this thing on the rooftop of something by the water. And they couldn't find Brighton Point. Like he was not, you know, they tried to text him. He like kind of like went, went dark and like he didn't want the attention. He don't want to do like, you know, kind of like a media call after like signing his extension. Like sorry. Sorry, but he's like, sorry, but he's like, sorry, buddy. You just signed for $400 million. Like you got to do have to do a media. Yeah. Yeah. So we did talk to him like

months later, you know, and he's like, I feel like I have to earn it. Like I feel like to prove that, you know, reward their faith and prove that. You know, you know, we're worth their faith and prove that I'm that kind of a player because he's getting, you know, Kutrovna's enough of Vaselowski money. But, um, but, um, but yeah, I think there, if there was a parade or a appreciation toward Braden point, there'd be a lot of lighting fans on it because, you know, there's no question he's been instrumental to what they've done on the last three, four years. He figures prominently into our player tiers, which drop on the athletic NHL on Tuesday morning. Oh, look at you like a pro. Yeah. Hell yeah, dude.

Oh, and Vaselowski was number one on the goalie tiers, which I, you know, I've had a lot of mixed emotion seeing that published without me doing it, I was really broken hard to see. I thought that I would retire with my move out of the writing space, but it was, I'm glad to see. Couldn't carve out a couple days to do that, huh? That's really hard. The goalie, that was the first thing I got rid of. 48 hours of work.

Just deal with it. Months of work. I was like, here you go, everybody. Enjoy doing goalie tiers. Basilowski, of course, he's just become his own tier. It's almost like the same, we run back the same comments every year. But, you know, like we can talk all we want or speculate about the third line. As long as they're running out point, Vasilewski and Hedman and maybe the best coach in the game.

And maybe the best GM in the game, you know, I think TEP is going to be okay. Yeah, I think that's the phrase that everybody used like from the start of camp. Long as we have 88 and that we're in good shape. And I think he's their most important player. And as all the stars in their team, like, you know, they, he's their stabilizer. He's the rock. He's the guy that when they give up 28 shots on goal, like, or shots attempts in the first period, like on Saturday, he makes all the same.

And all of a sudden, it's okay in a second period. Like, I think, I think the goalie tier quote was perfect was like in Tampa, the Tom Brady example is kind of fitting. I think if Tom Brady weren't here, if there wasn't such a big deal, like I think their guy like him might be, you know, on that kind of, you know, rush more. status, you know, with the way he, you know, the two cups, they won, played every single minute, every single playoff game the last two years. So I think it'll be interesting how they work, because manager's workload this year with Olympics. He'll be playing for Russia. And Russia could

be the upset special pick in the Olympics in Beijing. Imagine him against Cooper's Canada team with Braden Point and those guys. Let's do it like a metal game. Let's do it. They should actually try to play Vasilevsky at center. They might need him more there, the Russian team. She's, they can't have grimm. Grim enough. All right,

well, last thing, I mean, you mentioned the Barkoff signing. I mean, it is, we are in this fun point in,

you know, I think back to that, the playoffs last year, it's like a legit thing now, Florida and Tampa. We saw some heated preseason stuff. We've got, you know,

competing franchise centers, signing long-term deals. So it, it sets up for a long time. You know, that, you know, the fact that Florida could be legitimately good. And Tampa is the one fending them off is one of the, one of my favorite like sneaky storylines this year.

No, I mean, if you watch that series last year, I mean, it was, you know, if Panthers had any semblance of goaltending consistency, that would have been a seven-game series. Now, they used three goalies against Tampa that first round series. But you, you watch them this year. They're even more loaded up front. It's hard to find a weakness on the ice. And, you know, aside from all the fights they had in their preseason game over someone ran into Vasilevsky, I think there's a lot of intensity in there.

And people ask you what the biggest obstacle for lighting repeating is. And I think it's their division, you know, the guys that have to face every day, you know, the Panthers, you know, the Leafs, if they're going to turn into the Leafs, people think that they can become eventually. There'll be a force. Boston's getting older, but they're obviously a tough out. And so, you know, I think the Panthers are, I think the real deal. And, you know, they only get there by winning a playoff series. which we'll find out they can do this year. But those matchups with the lightning are definitely exciting,

and they'll definitely be important this year, too. Well, Joe, thanks for doing this. And enjoy the start of another season. I know you have a practice to run, too. So it's fun time of year. And appreciate you hopping on. Happy thanks, Ken. Craig, you want to bet on the Michigan State game next week?

Michigan undefeated, Michigan State undefeated? Yes, yes, by all means. Whatever, I'm fully confident in the Spartans, if you want to lay down a gauntlet right now. I don't even need a spread. I know how Michigan, you're probably already thinking they're going to be favored. But are they,

have we, you know. Well, it's at Michigan State. It's even slanting, right? So, um, pretty even up.

So what do you think? You, well, we can, uh, we can think some things over, Joe. Lunch and D.

Lunch in Detroit? Dinerd or. Absolutely. Yeah. Loser has to buy dinner. Absolutely. That sounds good. Craig's Mel Tucker

Bobblehead is just out of just out of for him. That's a huge Mel Tucker guy. I miss Bobby Williams. That's true. So that's right. You know.

Yes. Or yes. It's a different feel in East Lansing. No, it's fun up here right now to have these teams undefeated. It's good.

Good proper fall right now. Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for guys for having me. And we'll catch up soon. Love it. All right. We go from Joe Smith.

in the reigning Stanley Cup champs to deputy commissioner Bill Daley, a proud American who he may or may not even know it's Thanksgiving today. And we've got not, not celebrating. He is not celebrating. I don't know. Maybe he does. I feel like if you're in the hockey space long enough, you just kind of co-opped both countries. Whatever is going on. Disagree with that.

Whoa. I'm sure. I'm sure that'll be question number one. We ask Bill. So we've got Bill Daly coming back. A lot of things to talk around around the league. Excited to have Bill on. So we'll be right back.

We are now joined by NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. Bill, we were already debating. Do you celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving? You've been around Canadians long enough. Do you even do a turkey or do you just wait properly like a good American? I don't do a turkey on Canadian Thanksgiving, but I am very aware of the holiday. I asked my friends in the Canadian in our Toronto office what the slate of CFL games were for today.

Unlike in the United States, they can basically play the whole week schedule on a single day. So Rough Riders versus Rough Riders, I believe, today's scheme. Oh, man. Rough one for your dolphins, Bill. I'm sorry. I mean, oh, man, my goodness. Yeah, that game couldn't end soon enough.

Oh, my goodness. It's a tough one. You're right. So really what we're celebrating is that it's, it's, it's, it's NHL season Eve here. And, gosh, came fast. Like, it just came fast. And here we are. And what I wanted to start with, like, here we are on the eve of the season starting.

And you've got Seattle playing in Vegas. And it, we've all been waiting for this moment, you know, covering Seattle for years and this buildup. But if you take a step back a couple and just say, here, Seattle's, playing in Vegas. Like, what a, what a weird, not weird, like, what a crazy thing? Like, what, now that it's actually happening and you've kind of seen this through, what's going through your mind to see these two teams playing an actual real NHL regular season game?

That's a, it's a good question. I'm not sure I've ever stepped back from it far enough to really look at it that way. And certainly, you know, we were thrilled with, and still are thrilled with the success. that Vegas had upon entering the league because I think there was a lot of skepticism and the cynicism around that franchise and around. Not from us, by the way. We always said it was going to learn no matter what. I believe it.

If you said it, I believe it. But, you know, that obviously was a new market for professional sports generally. It certainly was a new market for hockey. And, you know, the results have been unbelievably good. And just, you know, the excitement and enthusiasm around hockey and the sport of hockey and what the Vegas Golden Knights have done to generate that has been truly special. And, you know, I think there was less cynicism around the Seattle market being the market that would work for hockey.

But I will tell you that the early returns are it's going to be beyond our wildest expectations. the demand for hockey and the response of the fan base there. Certainly the franchise has done all the right things to kind of generate that excitement. But, you know, the excitement is palpable. We were out there obviously over the summer for the expansion draft. And people can't wait for a puck drop. And, you know, they've opened their practice facility. Their game facility is going to be.

one of the best, if not the best in the league and is ready to open in a couple weeks. So it's an exciting time for the National Accute League for sure. Another big source of excitement, honestly. It's been, it's been wild to see is the level of excitement people have for the new TV deals, whether it's, SBN or TNT or whatever. It's something that people are talking about even more than, I feel like even more than I anticipated.

One of the threads there that's been really interesting to me, and like John Bouchagros has said it, Steve Levy said it is the idea of competition between ESPN and TNT, that these are, that these are two networks that are both, you know, kind of gearing, gearing to be the best in the game and maybe they're going to push each other to a next level. And I was wondering if that's something you guys have talked about at a league level and how excited you might be to kind of see those two play off each other. Well, I certainly do think that when you have competition in the market, you push each other to be better. And I certainly think he has.

SPN and Turner for a long period of time now, kind of push each other kind of in the professional sports broadcasting space. They've gotten along remarkably well. They cross promote remarkably well. They both have kind of different approaches to covering the game, which I think is exciting as well. I think Turner is going to be far more kind of entertainment based and ESPN more kind of traditional sports based with innovative features.

So I do think there's positive there of one wanting to do outdo the other. You could see it. You could see their competitiveness just in assembling their talent over the last four or five months in terms of how they approach that process. And they both did a remarkable job. They both have great hockey voices. really excited for it to get going. It's funny. The other thing that's,

so in the media landscape, that kind of created a battle for talents or whatever. The other thing that you're seeing is now a lot of these gambling sites are trying to get into the media game or, you know, there's this impact there. And so that creates a whole new level of coverage, right? What's been,

I know the league's been looking at gambling and it's very involved in all of that and the impacts, but has there been any, like, surprise developments of now that, This is, you know, from your perspective or impacts in the league, this is amazing? I don't think there's anything that's really caught us by surprise. Yeah. I think a lot of the things that we anticipated would be the logical effect of the

introduction and normalization of sports gambling are, in fact, happening. You know, I do think they've given us an increased number of engagement platforms, to your point. You know, the shows talking about hockey and talking about, our games. You know, there are some people who watch that only for betting purposes, but there are other people who watch it just to be educated on our game. So it's, I think that's a positive. Certainly there's been a financial benefit to the league and to the clubs. It's probably not as much as most people speculated is at this point. But I do

believe that that market will continue to grow. And it'll continue to be beneficial for us, both from a financial standpoint, but also a fan engagement standpoint. We see, I mean, we talked about some of these financial impacts on the positive level. And I, you know, I think there was a bit of a hole, obviously, because of the pandemic. When do you think that this will impact the cap in terms of all these kind of positive momentum leaks it has right now in terms of an upward climb? Well, I mean, look, I think the, I mean, they all impact the cap on some basis to some extent. you know, the more we can drive revenues, the quicker the players can essentially pay us back.

And once, you know, that balance is paid off, the cap, you know, is free to grow again on a more material basis than a million dollars a year. So, you know, I think it would be good for both parties, both us and the players, for that to happen sooner rather than later. and the more revenue we can generate, the quicker that will happen. What's that balance that, Bill? You were saying the... It continues to be a significant balance. But you know what? We are anticipating and projecting, knock on wood,

if we don't have cancellations or postponements, and people can attend our games as we expect is going to be the case from the start of the season. We expect to certainly do better than we did in the last full season. which was 1819, and probably outpaced what we would have done in 1920 when the pandemic hit. So, you know, we've, you know, our credit to our business group, both at the league, but also the club staff who continued to work during the pandemic and continued to generate business, a lot of business and a lot of new business.

And as you know, you know, given the exigencies of the circumstances, we, We became more creative in loosening up and creating new value for the clubs in areas that we had not ventured in before. And, you know, we're anticipating launching, you know, Jersey advertising for the 22, 23 season. So, you know, we've come a long way. And I think, you know, we'll continue to be able to generate revenue growth, obviously, two new US TV deals help in that regard and the engagement they'll create will also help us grow revenue. So it's all good right now. So here we sit on Monday. Rosters have to be turned in. So there's a couple topics we've got to run through with you. Van der Kaine, we don't, as I sit here,

we don't know what that status is going to be. Is there any update on the investigations with him that you can provide? I mean, nothing I can share today. I do expect, Obviously, there'll be news vis-a-vis a vander Cain relatively soon. I don't know whether that's today or whether that's later this week, but there should be news in the near future for sure. Okay. You know, it's been a newsy stretch, you know, beyond just training camp and camp battles. Robin Leonard comes to the forefront with Twitter account.

We applauded it. Like, I think everybody wants people like Robin Leonard to speak freely, talk about important topics. And I, you know, we're fans of Robin. And I'm sure the league, you know, it's good and to some extent. But I know there was conversations with him after between the league and Robin Leonard. What are those, like when you're shaping how he approaches his public persona, what are those conversations like?

That's a fair question. I mean, what I will tell you is I did have the opportunity to talk personally to Robin after the tweets, and I can tell you, he feels extremely passionate about mental health issues and mental issues as they may affect players in our game. And I totally 100% respect that. And most of our conversation really went toward us being aligned. The league and he and the Players Association, quite frankly, in dealing with and providing resources for mental health challenges throughout

the league on a basis different than and better than we've done in the past or historically. I think I think all sports leagues are taking a look, taking stock at that issue and trying to address it in a positive way. And I put us in that category, I think he was reassured that we are aligned. With that objective, I think he feels we're being genuine and not just paying it lip service. And he wants to be helpful. He wants to be helpful to us and to the Players Association and figuring out how best to tackle those challenges. So all of that is positive.

Do I necessarily agree with the manner in which he chose to initiate? that conversation with us, I probably would have been more comfortable with, with other approaches he could have made and chose not to. But, you know, again, I think it's a testament to how strongly he feels about the subject matter. Yeah. So as of, as of 11, 11 a.m., Jack Eichol is still on the Buffalo Sabres. He has not had surgery on his neck. And that's a really, that's a contentious debate between a team and a very high-profile player. And I wanted to know if you, as in the league, had any sort of appetite to intervene and play mediator and deal with that in one way or another,

because this is a situation that's at loggerheads and has been for six months. And there's really, it doesn't seem like there's, I mean, we're moving toward a resolution now, but I mean, it's been, it's been quite a long time. Well, it's a fair question. I think we made ourselves available. to both parties in the dispute to be of assistance to the extent we can be. And, you know, that continues to this day that, you know, that communication, those lines of communication are open and we're here as a resource to provide assistance to the extent

we can. Having said that, you know, they each have their own vested interests in what's going on here and it's not our place to interfere with those vested interests or to rule one way or the other as some would have us do. You know, they each have their arguments. They each have valid arguments. They each have contractually based arguments. You know, so it's if it was a matter of that was open to interpretation where we could, you know, throw a lightning bolt fairly, we would, but that's not what this situation is, unfortunately. So it's really, at the end of the day, it's going to be resolved by the parties themselves. I think, you know, since Paperson has been brought on by Jack to counsel the situation for Jack,

I think certainly the lines of communication between the Ico camp and the Sabres are far more open than they were before. They each understand each other's points and arguments, and they're trying to find something that will work for both parties. So let's hope they can do that. So it feels like they better understand each other versus, say, a month ago or two months ago, like, are we turning in the right direction there? Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I think the, you know, Pat came in and, you know, tried to learn as much as he could about the different issues in a short time period. But I think he also both, one, had an established relationship with the organization, but also worked hard to build a better relationship, a more open and transparent relationship with both the ownership in Buffalo, but also the management team in Buffalo. So, you know, they're pulling in the same direction to try to get a resolution, but they're doing it obviously from different sides of the river. Yeah, yeah.

So Bill, I know you've got to run. So just last question here. You know, the Blackhawks are holding their internal investigation into the allegations against Brett Aldrich. I am sure you're waiting to see like we all. I think it's going to be public. What would be the next steps for the league? Is there a possibility that you would kind of take the baton on an investigation? or what will the league's approach be once that's finalized?

It really will depend on what that report says and what its findings are. And we'll wait to be able to review that report. And if there are follow-up issues that are league, you know, implicated issues, obviously will follow up as we deem appropriate. But it's really premature for me to even. comment because I don't know what that report's going to say. Right. Sure. Well, Bill, thanks for doing this. And it's a fun time of year, a lot happening. We're excited here in the States, especially ESPN and Turner and all the, you know, Seattle, big moment. So hope you're

able to enjoy. I know you got a lot on your plate. Hope you're able to enjoy what's coming. Well, thanks, guys. Enjoy the season. I'm looking forward to it as well. Thanks for having. Thanks, Bill. Thanks. Thanks. All right, guys. Thanks again to Bill Daly for joining. Exciting time. always like he's got one of those jobs it's like you can enjoy it for a second but then also you have like 10 fires to put out um not you know it's it's it's i'm glad he was able to come on and talk and we appreciate bill for doing that and producer jeff for setting that up and let's take a quick break and we get to finally sean pick our fantasy pool i've been i've been prepping like non-stop since we talked about this a week ago you won't you won't leave me alone about it dude

This is going to be so good. Calling me in the middle of the night saying, who are we going to pick from Salvian's fire? We're right back. We're back and it's time. It's time for what we've been waiting for for weeks. It's time for what Craig has been bothering me at all hours of the night through various means of communication.

It's time to select our office pools.com team. Again, this is officepools.com. You can just the athletic hockey pool. You can play against all of us. you pick one player from 24, if I can count correctly, 24 preset categories and go against me and Craig and Haley and Ian and Macandoo and Ian, I guess. Also Ian and Ian and then Ian, Ian and Ian and Ian. Are we picking from all 24 of these boxes?

We got to fly through this then, Sean. Wait, do you know who my, you know who my favorite is in this, in this pool? it's Ian. Is it? Yeah. Well, because he's going to have 20 entries. Yeah, exactly. My money's on Ian.

All right. So let's do this. We're going to fly through this. This is actually probably the way we should pick stuff in general. Like when you and I ran a fantasy team together, we would spend a lot of time on it and spend hours on an auction draft and always end up as, you know, the most mediocre team possible. So maybe just like first, first answer, best answer is the way this is going to go. So this will, this will work out well.

Here's how I think we should do this. Our rules should be we alternate final say or who gets to pick in each box, you and I. And if tie goes to the American, we should lean American, if at all possible. I agree with you. All right. I agree with you. I'm going to start. Oh, no, no.

No, you start it because I want to, we're going to go to the Craig Custon Center. I should be able to pick my own box. So you start. Yeah, we should both be able to pick her own guys. All right. McIndoo's meal is the category. It's McDavid and McKinnon by themselves. that is obviously no-brainer.

I think God bless Nathan McKinnon, but it's fantasy hockey. You'd be out of your mind if you didn't pick Connor McDavid. So that's the most. Can I just throw, and I'm already slowing this down. We're going to fly through this. You, come on.

This is like the biggest no-brainer. The only thing, it's like picking a NCAA tournament bracket. Sometimes you're better off taking the one that no one else is taking in case McDavid gets hurt or something goes sideways there. And then you have McKinnon. I agree with that, but this is not the place. This is not the place for that. We'll go McDavid.

The Craig Custin Center. Who are we? Here's what I'm going to do. Wait, are we going, okay. Are we going down here? You want to me to go left or right? No, no, no, no, that's fine. We can go down in a little.

That's wrong. I'm going to go down in a little. I just wanted to get to my pick. The Craig Custin Center. This is a good box of two-way centermen for the most part. Really responsible players, much like myself. Very responsible fella. That's true.

I'm going to go in this box. box, I'm going to, we're taking Braden Point. We're going to, we like Braden Point. And we just talked to Joe Smith about them. We're going to throw daily parades for Braden Point. So there we go. Ryan O'Reilly has the best, or has the best number. And he's certainly, certainly a regression candidate, as we've talked about in a lot of

different spaces. So, yeah. USA, here we go. This is, this is the USA specific one. our pick from that our pick in that space oh boy that's that's really tough

also David David Peron's on why is David Perra to the USA box he's not he's not American so we're not we're not we're not going to pick him Besser Besser Coutureer Robertson, Rust and Wheeler I'm going

I'm going Cotterier yeah Cotteria is not not American either he's born in Phoenix Brock Brock Besser All right good Brock Besser, good. Pool winners.

Here we go. These are your, you're picking one from the pool winners. What does that mean? Like, you win your pool with guys like this? Is that this? That's a good question. I don't know why it's called this.

I'm going to go. Carter Verhagie. Oh, I love it. I love it. You're banking on the, on the barcob effect to, for a full season. I think he's going to be really good.

I like it. I like it. they gave him some money. They're clearly going to give him a chance to keep cooking with Barkov. Yeah, man. I'm in the Panthers. That's fine. I'm into it.

It plays for an American team. And I don't think anybody is going to pick him from that group other than that. So that's a good differentiation point. Thank you. That's why. This group is called All About the D. Be quiet. Oh, it's Macar.

It's Macar. It's Macar. Easy. To the point. To the point. Braiden points not in this one. This shit, actually, I'm going to let you pick this one, Sean, because you love to say the word point. Is that irony?

Point. Yes. Points. Go ahead. You can pick this one. Oh, no, no, no. Oh. I love that.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's see. We're taking Zacharansky. Sorry. Okay. God damn it. Okay. So.

American, New Shigen, Navy. Charlie McAvoy is on the first power. power play. He's running it now. A thought. Is Jake, is, is Warchek going to take away touches for Worenzky on the power play? They're going to run it through him. Maybe. I don't know. This is up to you. This is, this is your pick. I know. I'm picking with my heart. He's, he's, he's one of my children, Zach Wrenski.

Your son, your son, Zach Wrenski. My son, Zach Wrenski. My oldest child, Zach Wrenski. It's, it's, it's Jack Wrenskiy. It starts with a C. He's in our family, Jack Wrenski. All right. My son, Chaconisky. Okay,

the Monsters of Mendez is the Ian Mendez Memorial group. Oh, man. Matthew. Yeah, Cheez-O-Pete's. Jeez,

a loo. I didn't, I didn't, yeah, sorry. Oh, I mean, you get the next two picks. Box of Gentile. Again, this is the,

this is the jerks. I got thrown in, thrown in the, in the PIM specific group. Um, we got to go Matt Kachuk. Gotta go, Matt Kachuk. Got to do it. Bounce back.

Yep. Bounce back here. There's also other guys we can eliminate in there pretty easily. So yeah. We're going next up, the all name box. Yeah. Okay, I get it. It's funny.

I'm going to go with. I know you're pregnant. I'm going to take Fiala here. Yeah. I'm going to take Fiala. Kevin Fiala. Love it. West Side Story.

So this is, uh, Western Conference Conference players. Boy, this one is a lot of fun. I'm not going to, we're not going to pick Kubli, but that's, he's a fun guy to have in there because he gets, he gets Taves back, right? Yeah. Do you have to take Clayton Keller just out of America? The coyote is going to be terrible, and I don't know how you do anything there.

I would say don't pass on the American there. I love Tamasurdle. I love him. Yeah. Let's go. All right. I mean, we know each other too well. This is silly.

Like, we could, we could, we're picking the same. guys that we pick every year in fantasy. Defensive Dangles, pick one from this box. This is named after Steve Dangle. It's John Gentileys, arch rival. Stop. Who Sean makes fun of on a regular basis.

As we know, if you listen to the Tuesday edition, really surprisingly. I would think Steve's done some great things in this space. I'm a fan of Steve's. Not me. No, of course. So this is a bunch of defensemen. I want to take, so I'm going to rule out Chikrin because he,

I know. He falls into my category, the kind of player I would like, but since he chose Canada over the U.S., he can't be in our group. I'm going to go Dougie. They're going to give Dougie every opportunity to play every second of everything in New Jersey. And they got to make that number work. And Dougie, I like Dougie there. Dougie Hamilton.

Totally. Totally agree. He could get some of the runoff from the pending Jackie's breakout too. Oh, yeah. We're in the goalies area. Now where you take. Actually, let's go through and do all the goalies at once. So we can just knock them out of the way.

There's three different goal categories. Top tier team, this is the best of the best. I guess sort of we're taking Tampa Bay. That's a no-brainer. So, yeah, so you get the goalies. You get both goalies there. That's how this works. We get Vassie and whoever's behind.

Okay. The Teamsters Union, pick one out of this group. I'm a good, you know, I grew up in Michigan, Detroit, big union guy. I love, I mean, you're Pittsburgh. We are teamster, teamster family also, by the way. My uncle's, my uncle's my grandpa. Yeah, they drove trucks. Oh, yeah, my, we were, my, the teachers union in Michigan is my parents, I mean,

that put us through college. So we're indebted big fans. So I'm going to go out of this one. I'm going to go Islanders. We're going to, we're betting on the system and the goalies. And all, and we're also clearly on team Islanders in this podcast. We love the Islanders. Yep

That seems like an easy one for me Winnipeg Guardians are decreased Yeah Kind of Heller Yeah That's too That's a no brainer

All right Next category The Salvean fire We're going all over the place here now By the way You're like You skip Oh what did I skip

Okay fine Oh Lebrun's beauty Yeah you're right You're right Lebrun's beauties This is a bunch of players That would put these guys Together

That maybe Pierre would like We should take Gensela As a good American but I'm not going to here. I'm going to go, I'm going, oh man, this is tough. I'm either going Barkoff or Mariner. I'm going to go Barkoff. I mean, he's so good.

And Mitch Martiner is so good in the regular season. Well, that's, this is a regular season? I know. Yeah, I know. We're doing, we're like executives where we, you know, disproportionately weigh the postseason into every single evaluation. We make up a player. I really have.

Left out. I don't really know what this is, what the theme here is. Boy. Well, let me. Patch, you, Patty,

see, you're Patty ready or Caprizo. Caprizo? Well, Kyle Conner's a good American, for it. I think, and Johnny Goodro, there's some good options here.

We could use a good veteran like Max Patcherady on our team. We're pretty, we're pretty upsyty like we always are. He's really, he works on the stone line. I'm fine with that. I like that.

Dark horses. This is, well, Verana is a no. Yeah, so these are guys that we would like to normally take a flyer on. This is right up our alley, this whole category.

So I think Tyler Sagan's going to have a bounce back here. Hmm. You don't? I'm going to give, I'm going to get you, allow input here in this category. So, okay,

so we can eliminate. I'm made Verona because he's hurt. Reinhardt would be a good one. I don't know that Suzuki has. I'm not ready. He's great, he's great, but the production isn't quite there yet. The process is there. The production isn't there.

I love Sam Reinhart. Okay. And I love him on that team. Aren't we like all in on the Panthers? Should, I mean, it's a strategy. And they're going to go. Yeah, let's go Ryanhart. It's a strategy because, because you know, you know nobody else is going to be taken.

Panthers. That's a differentiation. All right. I like that. I know what's going to happen is like, hints is going to come out and have like, you know, an 86 point season or something. We're going to look like idiots, but whatever. The young and the restless.

These are the young folks. Oh, boy. We love all these guys. Of course. We would take every one of these in our normal. We can, we can, this would just be a, all six of these guys would be on our roster. Okay, Marco Ross, you're Cole Cofield. I'm a, I'm a friend Ye.

Really? Let's do it. Second year breakout guy. Let's roll. Classic second year breakout guy. No, it's not like he submarine does in real life last year or anything. Okay. You're holding that against him unfairly.

If you're listening to this, I hope you've got the thing out and you're doing your own. It'll be fun. Like, hopefully you're, you're playing along and you're checking the boxes so you can send that one. Yeah, this is great. This is great. Walking the blue line. Walking the blue line, Tony DiAngelo is in this, is in this group. because walking the blue line matters.

All right. I'm going to go with, I'm going to go. Oh, I like some of these options. Petrie. Yeah, I guess Petrie. Good American. All right, I'll go Petrie.

We said tie goes to the American. As much as I like, Hayeskin. Who else would be? Good, Gerard I was looking at. Haskinin is great. Hayskinin is a great hockey player. He's just not the point. The points aren't going to be there.

Okay, so here is Salvean Fire. All right. Really interested on, really interested on how this category got its name. I don't see any shared DNA here. With any of the players? It is. With any of the players. I don't really get it.

I want to do a behind the music and the process of putting this, this sheet together. I'm into it. Do we want to look? Oh, man. Do we want to load up on stone? Do we want to load up on, on Vegas? I thought, I can't believe you're not going, you're not pushing for your favorite player in the league,

Svetnikov, Andrei Svetzegov. He's not my favorite player in the league. Amico Ranton. No, let's go Mark Stone. No, but then we got that whole line. I feel like we're really betting on. I, who cares? This isn't real.

If it pays off, we look like geniuses. If not, like, who cares? Mark Stone. He's a great player. Like, he's a great player. He's a superstar. Sweetest touch. This is,

Swedes? Baxter. Baxter, Hurt. Lindelm, whatever. Do we like, man, do we like a full season out of Mika? He doesn't have COVID anymore, I don't think. What about Pedersen?

That would be, those are my two. Let's go. We know what Mek is completely. Petterson is like, one of these years, it might be this year, it might be next year. It might be the year after. It's going to be before his deal runs up

because he's going to make. $15 million on his next one. It's going to happen. We need to be there for it. This is the exact thought process that we have when we're doing actual, actual things are getting a glimpse into how to finish six out of 12 in a fantasy hockey. Do you follow this strategy. Always.

You can plug and play. Like, you could literally just sub out names in G chat for the last 10 years. And it'll be the exact same thing. Brought you by the letter T. Okay. This one makes sense. names all start with tea. I'm going to run like the listener Teresanko, Tatar, Taravine,

Taves, Tofoli, and Trochequec. Are you the options here? Some really interesting players. Oh, God. Do we want to just go? I don't know that. I don't know what Teresenko has left. Nope.

Tatar is a great regular season player. Terrifina had a weird one. Tavs is no go. To Foley, I just can't quite. Do we want to go with Vince? Upper St. Clair, Suburban-Betsburg native Vince Trojax. Absolutely. The leftovers, first of all, I would like to file a formal complaint against the makers of this, that we're calling Jack Hughes, a left, this burgeoning star, Jack Hughes gets put in a leftovers box?

I'll tell you what. You look at all these other guys in this box, they're the losers, not Jack Hughes. Yes, this is, this is, you hear that? You hear that Martin H.S. Let's go. You hear that, Braden Shen? We're going to have you all day long here. Next box, it's a delightful pick because of a defenseman? Yeah, I guess so.

Boy. Do we want to bank on a bounce back season from Pionk? I don't know. Or not a bounce back. A follow-up is what I meant. I don't know about that. Riley, Seth Jones, no. Tori, Tori-Crew.

I'm Tori-Cru. You know me. Let's go. This is right out of mine. Again, Michigan State guy. You get a year's worth of adjustment. Yeah, Tori Krug's. I like Tori Krue for the solid.

Always always going to get power playtime. That was the last one, I think. Yep, that is it. That is it. That's a great team. I want everyone listening to this to enter your own team. You can win prizes. Mostly, you're probably going to beat Sean and I.

But I don't know. Maybe this is the year we put it all together. That's what we've been saying since 20, 2010 or whatever, 2011. That's long on that. 2006. Is that true? Probably.

2006? I was in college. We don't know that. All right. I believe. I think I was. We're already going long in this last segment, but I do want to encourage you, subscribe to the athletic, get the app, listen on that, and then go into the comment section

for our episode because we do like to interact with our listeners there. Man, we had some big ones in the last one, too. Lots of comments. So, yes. So some really good points here. I'm just reading these. All right. So I'm going to answer some of the questions.

I'm going to read them. And I'm going in cold. I haven't even looked. Have you looked at some of these? I looked at them a few days ago. Andrew W. The correct answer. The Memorial Cup winner was the Flint Firebirds.

The only relevant team eligible in the CFO. The only, okay. Yeah, the only relevant football team, which is the sport that the Memorial Cup decides. So congratulations. to them. Alex R points out, it seems a little Americaphobic to not have either of your names on the logo for the podcast. Is that true that we're not on the logo? I've put in a series of complaints about that. I expect a resolution by the time the time the season begins. Also, as Max Bultman pointed out, I think our names were in smaller font size on the ad. Yeah. So really, I mean, the Canadians with their

passive aggressive logo design. We see you. We see you logo designers. Mendez and Salvin are behind that. For sure. If I could, if I could bet on it, I would. Michael S. says, what is Pierre LeBron's cabin like? If you haven't been, how would you imagine it to be? Those are two very different questions. I do know, well, actually, it's 15 seconds or less, Sean. What would you imagine Pierre's cabin like? and I can actually tell what it's like. A really great jukebox setup that he can just dominate himself and play whatever bullshit he wants instead of putting $100 in at a time

and playing 50 tragically hip songs consecutively. He can just do it for free on his own time. That's a good guess. But you're wrong. His cabin is like, first of all, it's beautiful. It's in Muscoca, which that's north of Toronto for our American listeners. Yeah, you know, you know, you drop the address, too.

Yeah. If you can find it based on what I'm saying, you get to go. We're going to, we're going to triangulate Pierre's location based on clothes. He has, and it's just beautiful. He's got this big old deck on the back that they bought this place because of the sunsets over whatever lake that is in Canada. And it's just, like whatever. Lake whatever. And it's stunning.

And I will say the most Canadian thing I'll do is when I, you know, we go there. at four o'clock or three or whatever he makes these Caesars, I don't even call him Bloody Caesars. I call them Caesars like a Canadian, and they're so good. And you sit and sit on that deck. So, Bloody Mary with clam juice? It's Clamato. Bloody Mary with Clamato?

I'm actually a convert. So that's, that, this is the most Canadian portion of the podcast you'll hear. It's, it's a glorious cottage. The best part is the, um, giant shuffleboard table in the basement. So, Sean, you get it at half a bar. Bar games is very much. Shuffle board. That's perfect.

That was me on my next guest. That's his other big, big pastime when we're... A fridge full of beer and a shuffleboard in sunsets. Beautiful. It's great. We'll see. I should probably read these before I read them out loud. So if they're mean or something, but love the show you guys to become my favorite.

Oh, great. Of the athletic hockey show rotation. I'm still just waiting for Phil Kessel to make an appearance and your exciting investigation into this shady Corey Pronman character. Two very good callouts by Will. Phil Castle, we've put in the request for Phil. Is that, how's that going? No, and I'm, I have, I have eyes on the very, very mysterious Corey Pranman. Did you ask him if he's Canadian or American?

Corey, where do you live? Lucas C. You guys are hilarious. This is great. This is, this is great. Appreciate the humor. Oh, with the you. All right. This is just a setup by Lucas. Coincidentally, Scott Wheeler put out a great CHL preview yesterday. Lots of great dialogue spelled incorrectly. Lucas, you got to get a spell check, bud. We appreciate the comments, but these just littered with spelling errors and way too many U's in that one.

Brian P. Oh, again, my favorite, how many lists? Is it any Americans listening to this? My favorite with the U part of the show was when Ball came on and Craig went Peter, what's happening. Intentional reference or not, office space is my favorite movie. And I also greet all Peters this way. Of course it was intentional.

By you. No, it wasn't. I'm a huge office space fan. I am. So am I, but that is how you greet people a lot of the time, regardless of what they're going. Yeah, I say what's happening.

Yeah. Also, what's happening? That could be, like, you might just say that because of office space, to be fair. Yeah, maybe that's where it started. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. It was not intentional, but Brian, I appreciate you noticing.

And I would like to take credit for it. And Brian, what's happening to you, my friend? Bruno L. Regarding what Lner has brought forward, oh, do we got to run this legal before I read it? I don't think that management is the only party to blame here. It's part of the culture, especially if you look at the playoffs and players who play while being injured. When you learn after the playoffs that X guy played with a broken hand, for example, one can

understand that players are willing to take any available medication in order to be able to continue. And he continues. Like that's a like, we turn serious there without me realizing it. But he's right. Like the culture. We have another serious one coming up. Do we?

Okay. Mm-hmm. Should I read it? Let's, we let's just, let's tackle this first, actually. Okay. Like, I think that's, I think that's like the culture is you play through everything and you do whatever it takes, um, to play through anything. And so that leads to taking whatever is available to you as a player.

And I think that's about like I think what Bruno says there is is valid. And should we not celebrate? Like I don't know. Maybe we should say, hey, there's, you know, maybe playing through anything to win a cup isn't the best route. Like I think it's a valid question. Yeah. It's you're balancing individual choice and then pressure from an organization and then pressure from cultural factors and whatever else.

That's not something we can solve today, but it is. It's something I think about all the time. And it should be a bigger issue than it is. That's where, you know, that's why it's important to guys like Robin keep talking about it. This next one comes from Oifeb, who didn't like, I'm going to paraphrase a little bit, that we asked Mark Lazarus about the investigation kind of as an afterthought into the Blackhawks and would have preferred that we started with that, that keeping keeping, keeping, keeping, I know what our thought process was on that.

I think. I mean, we, and I, look, I, I, I, I, I, I read Oife's comment, um, last week and figured, figured we would talk about here. Just, just, just touch on it. Like, we, we see it and we're not, we're not trying to doge it or anything. Nope. But I, I think our, I think our approach there was that we wanted to mention it straight away and have that, and have that, have that, have that, have that be, you know, mentioned initially.

So we, so you guys, so we, we're going to get to. it when we got to it. You know, maybe, maybe it should have been the initial question. Maybe we should have had that conversation first. But the way, the way I thought about it was it's the most important thing facing that team. And, and we wanted to have that be the, the last, the last question that we, that we talked to last about. Like, I, like, I, so I like the order for that reason alone, because, like, that was, that was the take home thing. Like, we didn't want to end on, you know, talking about Seth Jones or Mark, Mark, Ferry.

Like, we got to, the way I looked at is we got that stuff out of the way. So we could talk about, uh, the, the investigation and, and, and, and the sexual assault allegations and, and all that stuff. I, I think, I think that was why we ordered stuff the way that we did. Um, okay. I, like, I, I, I, I appreciate the dialogue. And I agree with this conclusion, this from this comment, this is keeping these issues to the forefront are how we help change sports for the better. And I think, I agree 100% with that. And I, and I, I think, I I think we should I like that hold us accountable like that's that's totally we have to ask the

questions we have to talk about it or else you know absolutely so I have zero issues with that and I appreciate the comment I still I do feel like we did the right thing but that but that being said I hope you I hope to understand where we're where we're coming from on that we're always going to try to you know be better and and approach that as well as we can agree I agree this one come in but in between our jokes about you know yeah Canadian Thanksgiving and the CF in the CF and the CF not being real and whatever else. This comes from Justin D.

It's plenty good for an American-centric show, but not quite Scandinavian enough. We need a day of the week for the athletic hockey show to devote to the Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns on NHL rosters. Yeah, we're going to need you to come in on Sunday. Nordopalooza. I would listen. I don't think I'm the person.

Actually, I love, I would do that if I had nothing but time. I'm a fan Justin, good idea and to wrap it up I think this is dripping in sarcasm Jonathan C says Love the show guys As a Canadian

It's so nice to finally be able to get Some mediocre American content Oh thanks On your next show Could you guys see how many Canadian Olympic teams you could put together Before you build one that would lose to TV

Let's say Keep up the awesome one That's my, that's my, is that going to be my new Twitter bio? What? Mediocre American content. Mediocre American content. I mean, it's, again, I can't argue. How many Canadian rosters would you have to put together before you would say can the Americans would go in as the favorite?

Do you want the actual answer here? Three. Three. I mean, we're real. We're realist here. Three. It's three. We are not.

Um, but it's three. We did the, we did the, we did the, we did the, we did the, we did the, all right. The B team's last year. It's, no. Canadian B team is a, Canadian B team is a, is a juggernaut. But yeah, I think,

I think once you get down into, into team three, that's where you can, you can write, here's what I'll say. B team would be competitive. C team, you could write an American win in pan.

I'll say that much. It's sad. I thought we'd go part of that. All right. Well, Sean, thanks, thanks again. Great episode this week. God, this was a,

long one, buddy. I know, we wanted to do the office pools. Again, go do the, go log on, do that, join us in the fun. And you know what the problem was, honestly? The problem was that Bill Daly just wouldn't leave us alone. I know. Thank you again to Bill Daly and to Joe Smith for joining the podcast for producer Jeff working on a holiday. And especially as we sit here and drag this out into its third hour. God. Mostly so he can't eat Thanksgiving turkey. I think that's, was that our plan? He already did. He already did. He's got a goofy little feet. We talked about it. He's got a goofy little frozen turkey that he's doing today, too. The big, the big, the big, the big, the big, the big feast happened already in the Domat House.

Sean, great job. Thanks. Thanks for listening everyone. Happy Thanksgiving. Kind of.