The Athletic Hockey Show - Blake Wheeler stripped of Winnipeg Jets captaincy, Jason Robertson remains unsigned, the Mt. Rando of goalies who won the Stanley Cup, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

The Ian Mendes-Julian McKenzie era on the Monday episode of The Athletic Hockey Show begins and the guys discuss Blake Wheeler losing his captaincy of the Winnipeg Jets, Jason Robertson remaining unsigned by the Dallas Stars, whether Patrick Kane and Johnathan Toews are entering their last training camp with the Chicago Blackhawks or not, realistic Johnny Hockey expectations with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Mt. Rando of goalies who won the Stanley Cup, highlights from the NHL player tour in Vegas as reported by Michael Russo and Sean Gentille, and a couple of Multiple Choice Madness questions to close things out.Get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Here we go. It is a brand new Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, and I really mean that when I say brand new, because we've got a brand new co-host here. We've got a brand new theme song, entry song. We've got a brand new hockey season. It's all about the new stuff here. Ian Mendez with you alongside our new co-pilot.

It's Julian McKenzie. Welcome to the show, my friend. Welcome to Mondays. officially. Thank you so much for having me, man. This is, this is an absolute honor, a privilege. I mean, we've done these shows together, but obviously me in a fill-in capacity, but the fact that I have been elevated to full-time host is something that I will treasure forever, including getting to work with someone as established as yourself, someone I've grown up watching all my life. Oh, see, here we go. Yeah. You know what, though? I've been listening to a lot of the,

you know, your podcast with Chris Johnson. I listen to that. And, uh, You know, I, I, I listen to the episode where you talk to him about moving to Calgary and kind of all that stuff. And I feel like you sold the athletic hockey show, the Monday show short. You're just like, oh, yeah, by the way, I'm going to be doing the Monday show. You didn't even give me a shout out by name. You didn't even say, you're right. I should have.

So excited to work with the end. It was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be doing the Monday show. No, no, I should, I should have done that. You right. You're right. You're right. For context, like, yeah, like, I, what, the opportunity came for me to, to fill in and be the new host here.

I was really excited about it, man. I know I know I have the new opportunity in Calgary. I'm going to do the absolute best of my ability to cover the team and take over from the great work that Haley Salvean did in Calgary. But, yeah. I mean, come on, man. Again, to do that and getting to work with the amends, that is something that is not lost on me.

And you're right. I should have shouted you out on the Chris Johnson show. I owe you that. I love the way Chris Johnson. He was so bang on when he said, everybody's so proud of you. We're all happy for you that you've got the, opportunity. So as we talked about this before, you're taking over for Haley Salvean in Calgary on

kind of the writing side, Flames Beat Reporter. I got to ask you, because you've been in Calgary now for a few days. Can you just tell the listeners how much better it is to be a sports fan in that time zone? Like, how much better is it already for you? Man, like waking up and then football is on at 11 a.m. That is one of the best things I can just go through. I think I got in on the Thursday And I think Thursday night football was like, what, at five or six o'clock my time? And the game was over. It's like 10 o'clock. And I'm like, it's a decent hour for me to go to sleep.

Like, I think that's incredible. And I don't like, I mean, I'm used to being in the Eastern time zone where it's like 11, 30, 12 o'clock. And that's when everything goes down. And I'm like, it's 10 o'clock. And I feel tired. And I could probably wake up at a decent hour the next day. I love being in the, it's been a few days.

I love being in the mountain time zone. I love it. Maybe I'll eat my words in a few days, but I love being in this time zone. No, for being a sports fan, it's ideal. Like, you know, listen, I grew up in Vancouver, so when you're in the Pacific Time Zone, you know, back in the day, you'd,

I used to race, this is the funny thing. I used to race home from school and would try to get some homework done because, you know, hockey games would start on TSN during the week at 4 o'clock. Like, the game at 7 Eastern time would be on at 4 o'clock. The Blue Jays or the Expos would be on at four o'clock.

So it's great. It's a great way to consume sports. I love the fact that you're going to get that. I also love the fact, I got to say, that you moved to Calgary. And this was actually, this is really cool. I think this was heartwarming. I hope you don't think that I'm mocking you for this

because I think it's really sweet. Your mom and dad flew out there to settle you in. Like, come on. Like, that's pretty cool. That's not mocking at all. No, it's not. I'm not. I'm not.

That's really cool. Yeah, they've been really helpful for me these last few days just with like helping me move things into my apartment. Like my landlord will like come in and will just like inspect the place. Like my parents are just like, yeah, maybe this chair would be better. Maybe you got to move this thing. I just let them go and just do their own thing. I could just like hide off in my office and just be like, hey, you know what?

I kind of have to write this like Calgary Flames piece. I have to watch this prospects game. I just let my parents just do whatever, man. but they've really been helpful for the last few days. And they're going to hang out with me for a few more days after and just make sure I'm okay. And yeah, it definitely made the transition or it's making the transition a lot easier. And I can't wait to see more of the city and more of like BAMF and when I eventually get the time to do that. And I haven't even driven to the saddle dome yet.

Like that's like the big thing I want to either walk to or drive to or whatever. Like that's the big thing I got to get to. But yeah, it's been a really good time. And thank you to everyone who's sent a lot of, a lot of love on Twitter and social media and a lot of congratulations and thanks because it really means a lot. So thank you so much for the support, guys. I really appreciate it.

Okay. So you haven't been to the Saddle Dome yet? I haven't been yet. I haven't been inside. I haven't driven yet. I haven't done any of that yet. Okay. Do me a favor.

It'll probably be your first preseason game you cover for the flames. I need you to take the video. I've only done the walk one time. It was scary AF. Oh, my God. The catwalk, basically up to the press box. Like you kind of have to, I'm not a Heights guy. I'm not like super afraid of heights or anything,

but I, this one got me, yeah, it gets you a little, it's a little nerve-wracking. Let's just say that. I'm super mad at myself. Take the video and share it with people. I'm super mad at myself because at no point when I considered the possibility of living in Calgary and covering this team at no point did I ever consider that catwalk. For whatever reason, I thought it was in San Jose or something.

I didn't realize it was in Calgary because I've seen. seen those videos or the shots of how high up it is. I'm not scared of heights, but it just, that just does not seem practical to be. Like, I just think immediate disaster. So maybe after like a few times I'll get used to it, but that first one, I'm going to be, I might not even do a video. I might be too scared to like drop it on the ice or something. Oh, man.

Okay. Well, I look forward to that. Hey, I've got to share one story though real quick because I covered the senators on the weekend. in in Buffalo. The Senator is rookies. I was down there for a couple days. And for the listeners here, and you know,

like people know me, I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. Okay, like that's, that's probably one of my, my toxic traits as I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. And I love as a toxic trait for you.

So I'm driving home from Buffalo. It's about a four and a half hour, five, almost five hours, four and a half from Buffalo to where I live in Ottawa. And I'm driving home right at the same time the Cowboys are playing the Cincinnati Bengals. And,

This felt like one of those classic, you know, you're hitting the search. We've all probably done this in sports fans. You're driving somewhere and you're trying to find a game somewhere on radio and, you know, you get like this crackly AM. I somehow got, for a good chunk of my drive, the Cincinnati Bengals actual, I guess, from Cincinnati, their, their AM feed was coming through, okay? But here's the kicker, pun intended.

Yes. As I'm pulling up to the border crossing, like literally at the exact second, it's my turn. Brett Mahar is going to kick the field goal. I'm like, oh, no. Like, I need to know. And I put, I had to turn the radio down. I have no idea what happened. All I know is all of a sudden, my phone just blows up with text.

Like, boom, boom, boom, like so many. And I'm, I, I, I don't know what happened. I, like, I literally, all I know is either he made it or he shanked it. And I'm like, oh my God, like, what's happening? But the people that were texting me were Cowboys fans. So I was like, I think he made it because usually if he shanked it, that's when the haters come into my text message. But they, ah, ha, ha, ha, lo.

But I had to, like, literally, the timing couldn't have been worse. And then I got through, I tried to turn on the radio, but they had already gone to commercial. So I was like, oh, man, like, I don't know what's going on. I had to, like, kind of pull over to the side. Look at my phone. I'm like, okay, he nailed the kick. Man.

One is just, okay, so two things. One, it just hit me that between this show and the Chris Johnston show, there is going to be a lot of Dallas Cowboys content between you and Chris Johnston. Two, you are a lot better than me because at the same time as my, I guess everyone should know now, I'm a New York Jets fan. As the New York Jets were going through and they were going through against Cleveland, I was walking. Yes, an incredible comeback.

I'd even get to watch like the ending of it because I was out with my parents buying an iron and an iron board. Actually, we're looking for both of them. We realized how expensive an iron board is. It's like 60 bucks for an iron board out of you. I'll tell you what. This is, I don't know what, what are the important milestones in Julian's life?

But the day you became an adult was the day that you went shopping for an ironing board. That's it. You're now an adult. Like, it's over. My dad was just like, in the store, being like, man, 60 bucks for an iron board. Could you not go to like Amazon or something and get a cheaper one? That's what I was trying to say.

Hey, that's what I'm trying to say. Like, why are we making this a big thing? We could just go on Amazon and, like, get an ironboard. Oh, man. But anyway, yeah, you're right. That's a big side to adulthood. We've talked nothing about hockey so far. Yeah, so I'll tell you what.

Let's go from the New York Jets to the Winnipeg Jets. How about that? Because I thought this was really interesting last week. The New York Jets took the captaincy away from Blake Wheeler. And they said, look, we're going to do this by committee. And they're trying to say that, hey, this was, this is not a big deal, there's nothing to see here, but there's something to see here. I think any time a guy who's held the captaincy for multiple seasons like Blake Wheeler loses it,

you're saying something there. And I know Mark Schifley has been quoted as saying, I think he told Elliot Friedman on 32 thoughts that he was, quote, shocked. That's a big story to me. Coming into training camp that the Winnipeg Jets have taken the captaincy away from Blake Wheeler, right? Absolutely, it is. all the rumors and rumblings we hear about the room and their core that has been put in place in Winnipeg. Also, just the idea that a player like Blake Wheeler, who's been captain for this team as long as he has,

is going to play games with this team no longer with the sea. And, I mean, maybe it would be much more awkward if they would have given the sea to somebody else, but also just the fact that there's no captain there. Also, I don't know if you've taken a look at Blake Wheeler's cap-friendly page. This is the first year in that five-year deal he signed at the start of the 2019-2020 season where a modified no trade clause comes in because I think the first three seasons he just had a no movement clause. I think he still kind of has it.

I can imagine maybe hopefully Pugpedia doesn't go into my DMs and says like, hey, this is how it works. But like this, I still think that's kind of convenient that like this kind of happens as his contract goes through a little bit of a change. Because if I'm Blake Wheeler, I mean. I'm not, look, one, I'm not him, but two, like the idea that I was captain of this team, I was the leader of this team, at least one of the biggest faces of the franchise. And all of a sudden, this new guy comes in as the head coach.

Rick Bonas, respectable head coach, of course, has been to Stanley Cup final. But he says, nah, bro, like, we're taking the sea off of you. Like, yeah, are you not going to feel some type of way? I would feel some type of way about it. But again, I'm not Blake Wheeler. So I'm really curious about how he goes about this season. This has to hurt him. And if other guys in that room are also shocked,

including Mark Schifley, who went out of his way to say that, like, I'm really curious about how that affects the whole dynamic with the room. And Rick Bonas, like, there's a lot of questions with that.

Winnipeg's a weird team. Like, as we come into training camp this week, there's a lot of teams where I'm like, I have no idea which way this is going to go. And Winnipeg's on that list for me. Like, I have no idea where it's going to go. I think they're too talented to be a bottom feeder,

but I don't know if everything is okay for them to be a playoff team. They're going to be fascinating to me. As we look at some other, like coming into this week, it's, you know, opening a training camp is always a time where you sort of look at the biggest stories around the league. I think the Dallas star is not having Jason Robertson locked up is interesting.

Like, he's the last real true RFA star that's not signed. Like a lot of teams got their RFA deals done. you know, Robertson's a guy he scored 41 goals last year, Julian. 41 goals. And I know he got a little bit of love. I think, yeah, he was 13th in the Hart Trophy voting doesn't mean he was a finalist by any stretch.

But look, he played well enough that a lot of people thought that this guy, you know, was a driving force for a Dallas Stars team that, you know, probably wouldn't have made the playoffs without his contributions. I mean, I don't know. Like to me, that's a really curious. situation. How does this play itself out? Do you think he he's one of those guys that like

Brady Kachukh that goes into the season? They don't have something done? That's a big question to ask. And if a team like Dallas has to ensure that they lock him up, whether they do a bridge deal or they sign him long term, I guess the kind of plug the Chris Johnston show, which you can listen to on the athletic. It seems as if that he probably wants anywhere north of what Elias Pederset is making in Vancouver. So he's going to want a hefty amount of money, but maybe Dallas might have to clear some salary. I'm trying to remember exactly how much cap space they have right now. But I'm not sure what Jason Robertson's asking price is is going to really help out what they have going on right now at their salary cap situation. But you mentioned the 40-plus goal season he had at

a young age, a team like Dallas where they still have to carry on those Jamie Ben and Tyler Sagan contracts and they are well past their prime. But they have Jake Odinger who really showed out in the first round of the playoffs this past summer. and Jason Robertson, there's at least something they could kind of, you know, just hold on to. I didn't even mention Mira Heiskenen as well. Also a really good defense would for them too.

There's still something there for the Dallas stars to be able to at least be a competitive team. Yeah, I think it's about $6.3 million they have left in cap space. And if Jason Robertson wants anything north of that, like my math is not my strong suit. Yeah, my math is not my strong suit, but something's going to have to move in order for that to work.

but they have to keep them. They have to keep them in order for them to remain relevant. Well, look at, if I'm Robertson, the very least I want is what Josh Norris got out of Ottawa. Robertson and Norris, ironically, have produced at a very similar rate, like in terms of gold production.

Like, it's almost identical. Their first three seasons in the league, Robertson and Norris. Norris got an eight-year deal, Julian, just a hair under $8 million per. So if I'm Robertson in the Dallas camp, I'm going to say I can probably drive offense a little bit more than Norris. Like that's my floor is, you know, eight times eight or at least that $8 million hit.

Like, it's going to be interesting because I think Dallas is, again, they're one of those teams like a Winnipeg or where I'm like, I don't know what they're going to be, but I can tell you they're not going to be a play. They won't be a playoff team if Jason Robertson isn't kind of part of the picture for most, if not all of the season, right? Yeah, I agree. Again, a guy could score 40 goals at his age, a bright young star for that Dallas Stars team. Whether you get them to do a bridge deal, you find a way to sign him long term. You're going to have to move some peace out.

But it's imperative for the Dallas Stars to resolve that situation. I don't know if it ends up looking too good if this goes into the training camp and into the regular season. I don't see it going well for them that way. So tell me, look into your, by the way, on the Monday show, we need to issue you a, athletic hockey show, Crystal Ball. You can look into the Monday edition. Look into your crystal ball and tell me, Julian, is this the last training camp ever in Chicago for Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taves?

Yes. I say yes. I don't, I mean, if Chicago is going down the path that they're going down, which says, you know, we need to move on from the past era. we need to start cultivating new identity, new culture for the future. It doesn't make sense to me that Jonathan Taze and Patrick Cain are still around in that organization. Patrick Cain, there was a lot of people in Toronto were wondering, hey, maybe you find a way to lure him into the blue and white. Maybe Jonathan Tays with his health and all that different situation in terms of what you can get.

But a guy like Patrick Cain on the ice, he can still contribute to a Stanley Cup contending team. And I'd be stunned if Chicago didn't find a way to offload him for assets by the deadline if it got to that. I mean, come on. Like, I think this is the last training camp we see with both of those players. And look, we know what they've done on the ice with the Stanley Cups and the championships. No shame. And I mean, it's very rare for players to stay with the entirety of their careers with one team. Business is business, though.

So I think I'd be very stunned of Kyle Davidson didn't make a move with either of those players. and very likely Patrick Cain if he remains healthy. So yeah, I think this is the last training camp with those two players. It's possibly last training camp in Chicago for Cain and Taves. First training camp for Johnny Guadro in Columbus. And look, he was the biggest. In a summer where there were some splashy moves, there was nothing more seismic or surprising than Johnny Guadro landing in Columbus.

Like, what do you think are the realistic expectations on him? Like, what does Joe? Johnny Goodro have to do to silence any critics because you know that they'll, certainly from Calgary, there'll be some bitter fans from around the league,

maybe even some Jersey fans or Philly fans will be a little sour that this guy, he chose Columbus. Like, what does Johnny Guadro have to do to justify signing in Columbus and people will be like, ah, yeah, you know what,

that all made sense. Like, do they have to be a playoff team? I think they have to. Be close to a playoff team? I think they have to be a playoff team. I mean, And look, good on Johnny Goddrow for making the decision that he made and good on him for going out of his way to explain to either us or the player's tribune or other outlets why he decided to go to Columbus. But Columbus as it is right now in that in the metro division, they're not expected to be a playoff team, let alone a contending team.

So I think at the very least, if he scores a lot of goals, gets going with guys like Patrick Lining, and at least makes them a little bit more competitive or a little bit better than what people expected, that's at least a start. But I think if he makes the playoffs in his first year, that goes a long way to shutting everybody. This is a guy who scored over 40 goals last year on the best line in hockey with him and Matthew Kachuk and Elias Linholm. Like, I'm not saying he has to match that output necessarily, but he needs to do everything. can to ensure that he makes the Columbus Blue Jackets relevant. Also, at any sign of discord between him and Brad Larson or anyone else of that organization,

oh, you know we are going to jump all over that. We are going to jump all over that. So, I mean, I'm not saying he's that. He doesn't seem like that type of player is going to cost trouble. But if we hear anything like that in that first year, we're going to jump all over him for that. Oh, man. You know, one of the things, look, we all know that Johnny Goodrow ended up in

Columbus. One of the things I love about first week of training camp, Julian, is that you have to go back and kind of scratch your head and be like, oh yeah, that guy's there, this guy's here. So real quick, I'm going to recap a couple moves that I actually forgot that these things happened. And, you know, just for the benefit of our listeners, the listeners might be like, oh, yeah, I forgot that. You tell me, I mean, is there any other things that transactions that you forgot about? So, like, for me, like, I was like, oh, yeah, Ryan McDonough is a national Predator. And, you know, he was obviously a big part of the Tampa team that went to three

consecutive Stanley Cups and won two of them. But McDonough, no longer in Tampa. He's in Nashville. Brent Burns and Max Patcheretti and Carolina. I forgot about that. For nothing. Yeah. For not?

Like, you know what's funny? Like, McDonough, Burns, Patcheretti. Even to some extent, the Canadians made a couple of real salary cap related moves, right? They sent Shea Weber's contract to. Vegas, yeah, it was to Vegas, right? For Evgeny Dandenov. Like, I forgot about that. I'm like, oh yeah, Evgeny Dadnov,

the guy who was at the center of the no trade stuff last year with Anahun, he's with the Habs. Like, so, you know, Burns has a new home. Patcheretti has a new home. McDonough, like those are ones that I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot. I had to go back and look at Cap Friendly

at the offseason roster moves. I totally forgot about some of these moves. I'm trying to think. You know what's funny, actually? This reminds you of a story. So I remember going to hang out with a friend. And this was before I moved to Calgary, obviously. And just as I'm about to meet up with said friend, the Nazan Khadry deal gets announced.

So obviously, everyone's like, man, you picked a great time to go to Calgary. Do you remember what the Calgary Flames did immediately after that was announced? Right after that. Was that the Monaghan deal? No. Sean Monaghan. That was the Sean Monaghan. Yes, Sean Monaghan was immediately moved to the Montreal Canadiens.

do you remember who came back in exchange for Sean Monaghan? I thought it was the Habs got a first round pick, right? I think something, it's like a weird, complicated thing, but ultimately like future considerations is a big thing. Like it's at a point now where like almost every second or third day, I get a tweet from someone saying, hey, you're part of the Sean Monaghan package. You're the future considerations.

That could be. Going from Montreal to Calgary. That's one move. There's another move I think of a lot where I don't remember everything else. that this team did. But if this team basically relied on signing Eric Goodbranson to a four-year deal worth four years, it's a four-year deal with four million annually, we would look at them as a team that's like, I don't know if the Columbus Blue Jackets are, they had a great offseason.

And then they signed Johnny Goodron. So, yeah. Right. Yeah, you're right. Eric and Branson, four times four in Columbus was something I hadn't. But you know what? at the end of his career, Eric Good Branson is going to be

in the running to be one of those guys. Like, do you think, and I'll pull up his career thing here in terms of like how many teams he's played for. But like this guy, if I'm not mistaken, he's played for what,

16, like, so he's played for Florida, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Nashville, Ottawa, Calgary. So that, um, Columbus will be his eighth team in the NHL, am I right on that? I didn't realize he played for that many teams.

Yeah. So we can probably agree that maybe at the end of his, like he doesn't see the end of that contract in Columbus. Like maybe there's a chance that Eric Good Branson could be a 10-teamer in the NHL. Consider that. Like Columbus is his eighth team. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that he ends up with 10 teams. I had no idea he played for that many teams.

I was trying to think of all the Canadian teams he played for because he's been in Vancouver, he's been in Ottawa. And Calgary, obviously. Yep. So like, so like you could be the situation where like, what if like Winnipeg ends up being like well better than above and Columbus isn't playing well enough?

Maybe it's the first year of his deal about that. Maybe next year or anything like that. They say, yeah, we'll take on Eric Good Branson at four by four. We'll take you shedding salary. Why not? Yeah. Like, I don't know. Like, I had no idea Eric Good Branson played for that many teams.

There you go. He could be a 10-teamer. I also think it's important that we recap the game of goalie musical chairs. Yes. Every off-season there's goalie musical chairs. This year felt like it was pretty significant. Like it felt like there was probably seven or eight teams that got themselves a new starting goalie from where they were last year. And I think any time a team wins the Stanley Cup and that starting goalie doesn't come back, that's a big deal.

Like Darcy Kemper is in Washington now, you know? Yeah. Colorado felt like, hey, maybe we can win with Alexander Georgiev, who they picked up from the Rangers. They're like, you know, it's almost like when Chicago won that first Stanley Cup with anti-Niemi. And they were like, yeah, no, no, we're good. We, we, you weren't the reason why we won the cup. So we'll make a, we can swap you out. We'll be fine.

It's kind of what Colorado is saying is that, you know, we won. won the cup with Darcy Kemper, but you weren't the reason why we won it. We're okay to go with Georgiev, right? Is Antineemi the most random Stanley Cup winning goalie you can think of? Antimmy is the Trent Dilfer of

Stanley Cup winning goalies, right? Like that guy that won a Stanley Cup? I guess, but you didn't win it because of him, right? Like, I think he's got to be the most Rando guy. Like if Matt Murray didn't bounce back and win another cup, he'd probably be in the mix, right?

Yeah, he would. But Matt won two Stanley Cups. It's hard to call anybody who wins two Stanley Cups totally random. You know, Braden Holpey? He won a cup? He won a cup, but I don't really think of it as random because he was

actually good. Yeah. J.S. Jaguer, I'm trying to think of guys who just won one cup. Jayshigier went off. Like, maybe not. Jaystiger arguably was even better in the year they didn't win the cup. 03. He's the last, he's the last guy. You can tell me if I'm wrong.

He's the last NHL player to win the Con Smyf trophy for a losing team in the Stanley Cup. Yeah, the 03, the O3 Ducks. He was. That was a fun run. Yeah. Yeah. It was a fun run that culminated with a Ducks Devil Stanley Cup. So, you know.

It was only so. fun games. I sometimes look back at the Steve Thomas overtime winner. Paul Korea, I mean, look, it's very, very weird moment now. I think like, if we were back in 2003, we'd be like, oh, man, he got knocked on his ass and he came up and he scored a goal. But like now we look at it with a little bit more horror. But like, it's still one of the, it's still one of the, it's an iconic moment in Stanley Cup final history. That final gave us a lot, Bartamberdurl had in some weird goal, where he went out of his net and the puck went off his sticking in. He lost his stick.

And so I'll tell you what, that was the first, I was really, that's the first Stanley Cup, Sportsnet sent me to cover that. First time I ever covered a Stanley Cup. And I was like, I was so excited because, you know, Ottawa had gotten to games. I thought, like, they told me midway through the Eastern final. They're like, regardless of Ottawa goes through or not,

we're going to get you to cover the cup. And I was like, wow, this is going to be awesome. I'm going to, you know, that's like, damn it, it's New Jersey and New Jersey and Anaheim. and Marty Bauder either in game three or four, I can't remember which one, let in just the most atrocious, ridiculous, what are you doing goal that, you know,

it's a head scratcher. But what I'll always remember, Julian, is after the game, we go down to the visitors kind of locker room, one of the first guys there to speak was Marty Bordner. And, you know, I remember thinking like, this guy's taking ownership of a terrible moment and didn't hide from it and didn't, you know, didn't, you know, it wasn't short and curt.

He almost kind of laughed it off and it was like, you know, and obviously they bounced back and won two of their next three after I think the ducks tied up that series of two and Devils won this Stanley Cup. But yeah, it's, uh, anyway, how did we even get to this? Oh, yeah, it was, Rand, J.S. You know what? If we, okay, let's make real quick the Mount Rushmore

of random goalies to win this Stanley Cup. Like, for sure, anti-Ni is on there. Like, no questions asked. Okay. Okay. Random goalies to win the Stanley Cup. Yeah. But where does Chris Osgood fall in?

Because, again, he won multiple cups. But he's also like. But is he kind of random? But also like, and you could know better than me, but like, have we ever considered Chris Osgo at top five goal in the league? No. Is Chris Osgoe a Hall of Famer? No.

I mean, there's an argument. to be made that if you didn't look at his name or whatever, like if you just looked at his stat line, you'd be like, man, that guy won a couple of Stanley Cops and, you know, I don't think he's a Hall of Famer, but you can make of the argument. He might be the king of the Randos in that point. Some dude, which is some like, some dude with like a cage mask winning? Like, what?

Yeah. But then does this bring Matt Murray back into the mix? Because if, if now we're allowing multiple Stanley Cup winners to be on Mount Rando here. I don't know. I think maybe Matt Murray's in the list too. Man, it's kind of tough of Matt Murray because I still think he's like still young enough for he could still somewhat salvage his career

and still be like a decent. I don't know if he's ran. He's kind of weird. He goes like he had a really hot start as like a young goalie. Yeah. You know what? You're right. I'll tell you, is Darcy Kemper going to be on this list?

Like five years from now? I don't know. I think he might be. Man, that's a guy who bounced around. because he was in Arizona before. He was in Minnesota. I'm trying to think of other teams he was playing with. But yeah, he was kind of,

but he was getting like Olympic consideration at some point. Like, I mean, he could be. You know, the other guy, and I hate to say this, but because, you know, the thing with the NHL is, like, post-expansion, like, it was basically like kind of dynasties that were winning, right? So, you know, Philadelphia won a couple with Bernie Perrant and then Ken Dryden and Billy Smith and then Grant Fear.

Like, and then, you know, the penguins and the Red Wings and, like, the avalanche. Like, everybody had an elite goalie in all those years that they were winning the cup. The one outlier was Bill Ranford with Edmonton in 1990. But now again, Ranford was a pretty good goalie. I think he ended up playing for Canada at the World Cup in whatever year that was 96. I think he was like, so he was probably in a conversation as one of the better goalies. but if you need a fourth rando guy to win a cop, maybe Bill Ranford's the guy.

Sean McIndow. Oh, no, wait a minute. I got him. I got him. Oh, okay. Who is it? It's Cam Ward. Cam Ward literally.

Cam Ward literally got it. Okay, 2006 Me was a Montreal Canadiens fan watching, you know, the Canadians go up against. They were up to nothing, weren't they on Carolina? It's not even just that. That whole year, the Carolina Hurricanes gave the Canadians so much, like, they were so tough. Like, they were such a tough team. And when I saw that they were going to play them in the first round, I was like, oh, man, like this, this Kane's team is just going to wipe us to nothing.

Martin Gerber was like their starter for most of that year. Yeah. He was the guy who was going to be that. And then he gets injured. And then, like, Cam Ward comes in. I think that's also the series where Sacco Coyvoo took like a stick to the eye too. And the Canadians did have a two nothing series. lead. And I thought, all right, man, we have a series lead. We're going to win this series. And then Cam Ward comes out of nowhere. And the Keynes win that series. And they go to the Stanley Cup final and they beat the Edmonton Oilers who, if the Edmonton Oilers won, they would have had a goalie on that round. Because it was Dwayne Rollison who had the role. Because it was Dwayne Rollison who could have easily been on that list. And then it came down to UC Marketing and Ty Conklin. So like what of those three goalies would have been on that list? Right.

Oh, man. I think if I'm not mistaken, that Habs, Carolina series in 2006, 2006, the Habs were up, was it 2-0 or was it possibly two, like, I can't remember. They were up. I just remember they were up to 1 in the series, and the game 4 went to overtime. And I wanted to say it was like Nick Walleen, who scored an overtime goal. I remember thinking, ah, the Habs aren't winning. this series. It was like Nick Walleen, I think, that scored like a random overtime goal.

And then after that, I think the hurricanes like blew them out in the last two games, right? Like, it wasn't even close. It was almost like the HAPs? Was that 2006 or 2002? No, it was 2000. So they played each other in 2002, right? So they might have played each other in 2002, but 2006, they definitely played against you. You know what? Jeez, I'm thinking of 2002 hurricanes in, because Hurricanes and Habs played each other in 2002. You're right. 2006. 2002, though, was like the beginning of like my hockey fandom. But 2006, for sure, they played against each other. Because I think Justin Williams also did the,

it heard sacriquivu. And Sacriquivu, obviously, much out Canadian's legend. So that was a young Canadians fan, you know, now removed. I was not happy about that. Oh, man. Yeah. That was like old school. They used to play. Those two franchises used to play all the time in the 80s and early 90s.

With Hartford. Eric Cole, by the way, Canadians killer. before joining the Montreal Canadiens. Eric Cole used to be in my nightmares as a Canadians fan because he would, every time he just played against the Canadian, he would score against them. There was a little window there

where he was really good. And then he had like neck and back issues, right? But he was a really good player coming out of the lockout. Yeah. Eric Cole kind of had a, you know, ability to skate and, you know, finish a little bit. Yeah, he was one of those guys

and injuries. You know what? Now that I'm thinking, you know the most, as we're speaking, can we just agree on one thing as we talk about random things? Yes.

If you're talking about random members of the early 2000s, Carolina Hurricanes, the game starts and ends with Bates Pataglia, right? Yeah. That's the most random random guy in Hurricanes history.

Yeah, I don't have any memories of it like playing, but like I remember just like playing like the old like NHL games and seeing that name. and just think like, oh, double B, like with his initials. Bates spectacularia. Yeah.

Anyway, maybe our listeners can tell us, give us your Mount Rushmore, or no, Mount Rando of the four goalies that have won the Stanley Cup. We're thinking that maybe our Randall list would be Ante Niemie. I think Cam Ward's on there. Cam Ward's on that list. Anting the Emmy. I think maybe Darcy Kemper is going to end up on there. And we'll see how that goes into Washington.

to Chris Osgood, I think it's still the kick of the randos. He's the kick. Maybe Matt Murray, like five years from now, maybe it'll be Matt Murray. Because, you know, as we look at other goalies, again, musical chairs, you know, Matt Murray goes to Toronto, Cam Talbot to Minnesota, from Minnesota to Ottawa, Jack Campbell's into Edmonton, Detroit now has Villay Huso from St. Louis. Vitech Vanitek is going to be the guy in New Jersey, Marazek to Chicago. San Jose, like, went to the end of the summer before they finally.

got their goaltending sorted out with Capo Cacanin and it's going to be their guy. Kerry Price got put on the long-term engine reserve. Like, as you go back to the original point from way back when, man, there's a lot of musical chairs in the offseason here when it comes to the blue paint. Yeah, especially the Kerry Price won. I mean, being Montreal previously, like, I still keep thinking about that last press conference he gave where, or at least before the season ended, where he, like, the canines win that game, and he did kind of admit it was in the back of his mind that like, you know,

there was the possibility that that could have been his last game with the much truckings. Now we don't know when he's ever going to play again. It's just kind of tough, honestly, just see him go through all the knee problems that he went through and now he may never play again for that franchise. And I don't know how you feel about him and his stature in the league as a Hall of Famer potentially or someone who should have his number retired. I just think it's just kind of tough

that like one of the best goalies we have ever seen in the last like 15, 20 years. Like it's possible that the end of his career just comes because some some injection in his knee didn't react the way that he would have wanted. You know, it's it's it's kind of nuts. Yeah. Yeah.

This could be an interesting interesting off season or regular season, sorry, for goalies after the off season. You're right. Kerry, like the Habs goaltending is completely, you know, kind of in flux and no one knows how it's going to play out with Jake Allen being the guy. You know, I'm, yeah, I'm really curious to see, like, this Colorado, are they still as good with Georgia as a goalie?

That too. Yeah, this is going to be, it's going to be a lot of fun. You know, I think you and I need to, we need to make a push for next season, okay? Already? Next season, yes, we got to start, you guys start laying the groundwork here early. So obviously the athletic sent a pair of reporters in Mike Russo and Sean Gentile. They went to Vegas for the NHL's media tour. And I got to tell you, we got to push for this, man, next year.

Say, listen, we'll go down. We'll do a couple podcast episodes. I would love going to Vegas. Some stuff. Wherever they do, you know what, you know what will happen. We will put in the request for it to happen, and it won't be in Vegas. They'll be like, yeah, this year it's in Winnipeg or something dumb like that will happen to us.

But, uh, be pretty close to us. It'll be in Canada. We want to lose the country. Uh, but look, it was a lot of, the, the NHL brought basically 30 plus great young stars to Vegas, gave the media chance to sit down with them. Uh, if you, if you haven't had a chance, really would encourage the listeners, check out the piece that, uh, Russo and Gentilly did, uh, dropping on Monday. They just kind of looked at all the highlights of different media sessions they had. One thing I thought was really funny was they had a session with Cam Atkinson with the Philadelphia Flyers.

And Cam says that with John Tortorella as his head coach, before every season, John Tortorella writes a handwritten note to his players. So using a pen and paper, writes a note to his players, and then photocopies that makes whatever, you know, 25, 30 copies, whatever it is, puts it in an envelope, get stamps, and mails it out to the players. And then the players got, I guess they got these handwritten letters,

and one of the things Tortoralla says was, hey, be prepared, this is going to be a tough training camp, and you're going to be tested with your skating. I guess all the players in Philly got this note, and we're like reaching out to Atkinson, because I guess Tororella said, if you have any questions, reach out to Atkinson, he knows what it's like.

I had him in Columbus. I guess all the players are like, what are we in for here? I think this is fascinating. First of all, Julian, given your age, have you ever written a letter to anybody? Like that you wrote, yes.

You know, dear so and so, blah, blah, wrote it out, put it in an envelope, stamped it, and mailed it. Yes. Really? Yes. My first high school girlfriend, when I was in Jamaica week,

I sent her a letter. letter. I remember doing that. That was a very nice note to do. Also, I have... Wait, you were in Jamaica, like living in Jamaica or on vacation? Nah, on vacation. It was just some sappy thing. Plus, like, it took... Like, you couldn't, you couldn't, like, she sent her a note from like, Sandals, Jamaica. Like, I'm thinking of... I got family in Jamaica. We got family. Like, oh, you're even more lucky. Yeah, yeah. The sad thing is that I think she only got the letter, like, after I had already came back.

There were like two, three weeks, and it just took so long for the letter to get there. So she only got it after I got back. But it's the thought that counts as far as I concerned. But I have beef with this with this thing because it's one thing because this topic was presented to me as if John Tortorella hand wrote notes for everybody. But you mentioned a photo copy them. Well, that's the thing. You mentioned the photocopy thing. That's what would bug me.

why would you go through the trouble of handwriting a whole note and then photocopying it when, I don't know, you could have just emailed it. You could have just, you know, you might as well just type it out and then just put the copies in each of our lockers or whatever. If you're going to go through the trouble of writing it by hand, I mean, fine, maybe it saves time by photocopying it. But I feel as if you're handwriting a note, that's supposed to be a very personal thing. That's supposed to be something that carries a lot of meaning.

You might as well do it for everybody. Why are you going to do it for one and then photocopy? That doesn't feel personal to be. It sounds, it's almost like what used to be like there used to be chain letters where you would write a letter and then photocopy it and send it to 10 people. Yeah, because again, this story from Russo and Gentilly says, every season in handwriting that Cam Atkinson says could actually be improved. John Totorella pens,

photocopies, stamps, and then sends a note to his guys. The other thing is, how often are NHL players checking their physical mailbox? Like, Travis Kinecte every day is he going to his mailbox? I mean, considering that maybe a lot of those guys probably

order stuff off Amazon, maybe, pretty often? Maybe, maybe. That has to be it, right? This doesn't help the thought or the theory out there that, you know, John Terrell's old school, right? Like if you want to show that you're adapting to the newer generation of guys, and I'm not telling him, you know, he should get a Snapchat account or anything.

But I'm with you. Like maybe the email is the way to go. I mean, look, you don't even have to do email. It's just if you're going to go through the trouble of writing the note, commit to the bit and like write personalized messages for everybody. If you're going to go about writing it, if you're going to go through that trouble, you might as well just do it for everybody.

I don't know how I would feel. Maybe I'm just being an. reasonable about it. It doesn't make sense to be that you are going to handwrite a note and then photocopy it for everybody and then mail it. Like if you're going to handwrite it, like, I don't know. I think handwriting notes, there's something personal about it that shouldn't just be copied on mass to everyone else in that locker. I don't know. I mean, fine. Maybe that note might have said something more personal. What if John Tortorella just did that handwritten note and just said, guys, no iPads this year.

Writing by hand is how we will communicate the notes on games and whatever. Because he doesn't seem like an iPad kind of dude or a Microsoft surface or tablet guy behind the bench. He's not that man. So I don't know. I think like if you're going to go old school, go old school all the way. I don't think photocopying machine is enough. Like unless you have the OG printing press that like Martin Luther had like how many hundreds of years ago. Go old school all the way.

Don't cut corners. What was the original? It was Johann Gutenberg, I think, was the original. Yeah, sorry, Gutenberg, not Martin Luther. Yeah, the original printing press guy. But anyway, yeah, like, holy smokes. Like, that, that to me is a, it's a, but I was thinking to myself, I can't remember the last time I wrote a note and, or let me put it this way.

I don't know that I will ever write a letter again in my life. Like a handwritten letter. I don't know that I will. I won't mail it. I don't think I'll mail it. I think if I ever do that, I will, I will probably, like, I don't know, maybe like I personally just deliver it to a person. I had a friend last month who visited me from the States who we were like hanging out, like hanging in Montreal, hanging in Toronto, Quebec City. I took him around.

And I saw him on the train to Toronto. He like pulls out this like stack of like little papers and he's like penning this like note. And I'm like, what is he doing? Like, why is he writing this note? And I realized, because we had him over at my place, my parents' place, and my parents made a dinner all that, he hand wrote a note saying to my parents, like, thank you so much for hosting me these last few days and thank you for dinner. He gave it to me, be like, hey, like, give it to your parents.

Like, that's the kind of stuff I would do. I don't think I would, like, mail it, but I think like if I was ever. Yeah, not a full, like, man, like, I don't even remember the last time I bought a stamp. To be honest with you. I know what last time I mailed stuff. I mailed like a bunch of my belongings from home to Calgary. I'm still waiting for it. You know, it also reminds me.

So years ago when I used to, like before I worked as a reporter, I spent a couple of seasons in the PR department of the Ottawa Senators. And Roger Nielsen was one of our assistant coaches. And I remember we would be on either team charters or on the bus. And Roger would have a stack of letters. and there were Christmas cards. And he would handwrite. This was like in like early November,

or whatever, he started his Christmas car. And on the road, he would be traveling. He would just have his stack of things. And he was writing out his Christmas cards. And he was hand mailing, mailing out Christmas cards. The people with a handwritten note. And I even got one. Like, I was like, holy cow.

I'm on Roger Nielsen's Christmas card list now. I'm thinking if I got onto that list, I don't even want to know how many people he's sending it to because I'm probably like pushing number 1,400. Yeah, but did he, but did, but was your letter photocopied? No. No, there was a little handwritten note. Yeah.

And that's to my ultimate point. If you're going to go all the way and be like, I'm going to be old school and I'm going to write all these notes, don't photocopy the same message to everybody. No, I'm a bit disappointed at John Tortorella. Look, if you're going to go, corner the old school curmudgeon route, no problem with that. That's who you are. And I'm never going to, I'm not going to question John Torrell as a coach or as a communicator or anything like that. He's one of Stanley Cup champion. He's a Stanley Cup champion. But I think this tactic, if I was a player, I'd be like, really? Like, you couldn't have given me a personal note that you wrote for yourself. You had to photocopy this. I would make big stink about this, especially in Philadelphia, where there's supposed to be a lot of, it's supposed to be very fun. A lot of people look at Calgary and say, man, that's going to be a fun team to cover. I, if there was another team, I, if there was another team, I, I would want to be around.

That's not the Calgary Flames or much Rockanese because it's home. I would love to have Charlie O'Connor's gig in Philadelphia because I feel as if we're going to get so much. John Tortorella there. Tony DeAngelo, how like him or love him, however you feel about him, there's always going to be something with that guy being there.

John Torrell, even acknowledged the locker room is not necessarily in the greatest of states. Gritty is there. I'm still counting on John Torrella to have some kind of interaction with gritty. I'm counting on. That will not happen. Come on. I don't think it's going to be purposeful.

Something's going to happen. Something has to happen. As soon as it's there, as soon as it happens, I will be on Twitter ready to laugh at whatever happens. It's going to happen. There's just going to be fireworks. Yeah. No, no, I think so.

It feels like a very like flammable situation in Philadelphia. Absolutely. You know. But again, some great stuff, by the way, from Russo and Gentili, from the Vegas media tour. Another thing that thought was interesting, they talked to Jack Hughes. And Jack, of course,

terrific young sentiment with the New Jersey Devils, his brother Quinn in Vancouver. They're a great brother combination, very similar to the Kachucks, right? Where they're this great young American family. And the question was asked to Jack Hughes. If your brother in Vancouver made the playoffs and you didn't, would you go full Brady Kachuk?

Meaning, would you show a, up, cheer him on, sit in the stands, you know, wave the flag, all that stuff. He said to Gentile and Russo, quote, I don't think you'd see me with eight beers in my pocket. I might have one in front of me up in the box, but I won't be with Connucks faithful. That's for sure. It suits Brady well. What do you think of that? Because you know what?

It's interesting, because I remember you were one of the people that tweeted out when Brady was in Calgary and you were like, That's exactly why I'm sighing and I don't want to get into this. I don't want people to get mad at me again. I don't want people to flood my mentions and ask him what I'm talking about. It sounds to me like Jack Hughes is on Team Julian is what I'm saying. No, no, no, no, no. That's the problem. That is the problem.

I was not taking a side. I wasn't saying anyone was wrong. Don't say he's on Team Julian. I don't care. I was just curious what everyone thought. And because I asked the question, everyone thought, oh, so you got an issue with Brady Kuchuk doing a lot. all this, you got a problem with that? Even Haley

Salvia just wrote like, she just like commented underneath just like, what? And as soon as I saw that, I was like, oh, no, now everyone's going to think I hate this. I actually thought it was pretty cool to see Brady Kachuk in the stands with all these beers and just being with his family and supporting

his brother. And he went out of his way to, you know, he wasn't being a Flames fan. He was just supporting his brother as he was going through the playoffs. I don't have a problem with it. I was just curious what everyone else thought, but everyone took that tweet and thought that I was going against what Brady was doing. I think that's fine. And if Jack Hughes doesn't want to do that and he wants to go to

some fancy box like up in the up in the stands or whatever to cheer on his brother, that's fine too. I think that's more than okay. But everyone just assumed that like I don't like fun. You don't. Julian doesn't like that. You put that on purpose. You put that on purpose in the rundown.

Did you? No. I just thought it was interesting. Jack Hughes is like, you're not going to see me sitting with the fans. he's like, I'm going to be in a box somewhere and maybe I'll have one beer. I'm not going to have beers in my pocket. Anyway, I thought it was interesting you weighed in.

The last thing I want to ask you about, Austin Matthews told Mike Russo and Sean Gentilly, he's taken up tennis. And that happened because after he had the issue with his wrist in the off season, wasn't able to golf. And so he picked up tennis. And I'm, man, I'm curious about, like, would you love to see, like, would you like,

you like to see NHL players competing head to head with each other, like in other sports, and whether it's golf or like tennis would be fascinating to me to watch a couple of NHL players play tennis against each other, like a one v1 matchup. I think it'd be cool to see. I remember a couple of years ago, I got asked by this friend of mine. We went to Sejep. I think he works for an agency now. he hosted, he had this spike ball tournament.

It was a spike ball tournament. And they got like a couple of different NHLers and they asked me to like host it. And there was like a few guys like Anthony Bovillier was there. Daniel Sprong was there. I think like Joe Villano might have been there. I don't remember. But there were like a few like young prospect like NHL players. And to see them kind of like go at each other on spike ball that made me think, okay,

that's spike ball. that's one thing. But if we're thinking like a tennis or some other like, you know, more, I don't want to say more legitimate a sport.

I mean, I don't know, I don't want to upset the spike ball community here. But I think you, I mean, considering how competitive these athletes are,

like has to see some fireworks here. I'm curious about, uh, my thesis level at tennis though. Like, who could he go up against? I feel like there's some other guy who's really good. There must be.

Like, I know the Swedish guy, like Daniel Alpherson used to be really good at tennis. Like that, like I would suspect there would be some pretty good European players in tennis, you know? That was my thinking, too.

They grew up with it. You know what I've been into? Really been into? Is pickleball? Like, I've been playing pickleball. I'm in a league now. What is pickleball? It's really weird.

Like, it's the stupidest name of a sport. Like, I am embarrassed to say, like, I play pickleball because it's like, come on, guy. It's like, you couldn't have come up with a better name. but it's basically like a think of it as a hybrid

between tennis and table tennis. Like that's probably the best way to describe it, but you play it on an outdoor court and in Ottawa, there are a ton of courts, tennis courts that now have the pickleball lines painted on them so they serve as a dual purpose. And it's basically a shorter version. You have to do less running.

You play with a wiffle ball. there wasn't a great ESPN just did a story on pickleball about four weeks ago. They did a little feature. It's the fastest growing sport in America. No way. Taken off. It is ridiculous. Like, did you ever play tennis growing up?

No, not really. I tried like once. Not really. Okay. So if, like, if you played tennis growing up, like, which I did, it is very, very easy to get and you'll be hooked on it instantaneously. If you didn't play tennis growing up, but you have some degree of hand-eye, like have you, you've played table tennis, I would assume?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done that. Okay. So if you have some degree of hand-eye coordination and then match that with a, you know, a touch of athletic. You don't even have to be super athletic, but match it, you'll pick it up really easy and you're going to love it. And so, yeah, I've, I've become a pickleball guy. Is the athletic going to start a pickleball, the vertical? because I feel like if that happens, you're going to be leaving. I would be out yesterday. Like if they said, hey, I'm like, I'm in,

I will be the pickleball beat reporter. Actually, you know what? Speaking of racket sports, I'm set to play later this week, I'm supposed to play a new sport actually with Daniel Alfredson. Oh, cool. So he's introduced, he's trying to introduce this new sport in Ottawa,

which is huge in Sweden. And actually, Alfie has bought some courts here. in in Ottawa. And it's called, I believe it's, it's pronounced Pidel, but it's spelled P-A-D-E-L. And he's been telling me,

hey, like, you got to come out and play sometime. I'm like, okay, so I texted him. I'm like, can we,

can we do a day next week? Because I, you know, I also, you know, selfishly, I'm like, yeah, this guy's going into the Hall of Fame.

I kind of want to pick his brain on a couple things related to, you know, him going into the Hall of Fame. So anyway, I'm supposed to play with him on Friday.

He asked me to set up a foursome. other people come and meet him. And it's, it's a weird, this Padel, this is like tennis, but if tennis met like racquetball or squash, because there's like walls involved. Interesting. Yeah. So anyway, I'll, you know, I'll play him on Friday and I'll report back to you on next

Monday show how my Piddle with Daniel Offrenson went. Because he's an unbelievable racket sport guy. So he'll probably clown us, but. Yesterday, I was driving around with my parents and we were looking for a car wash and we went to this like Shell gas station and we're in this parking lot. And there's a building like right across from me with some banner that says like, like Padel. And I think there's, I'm looking this up now. There actually is a Calgary Padell Club. Yeah.

There's a Padel Club. I had no idea. I thought there was just something Dale Alpherson. It just, I mean, I thought it was something he just created. No, no, no. He tells me it's huge and sweet. He's like almost every, and he said tons of NHL. Actually, you know what?

This is probably a great fun summer feature for next year. I think so, yeah. He says to me that all these European guys play it in the summertime. All of them. So, you know, there we go. All right, Padel. All right. So, so I have to learn how to skate while I'm here.

I have to take up skiing again. Wait, you don't, you've never skated? I tried skating once. a 10 year old and I had the most miserable experience doing it. And I told myself, you know what? Like, I should probably like take up skating lessons at some point just to like, just so I know how to skate. Like I've gone rollerblading before like in like a little like roller derby like kind of rink. But like I've never been able to get the ice skating thing down. Which is kind of funny considering my line of work. Okay. What about skiing? Have you skied? I've skied. I went on like

like ski trips and like school, but like I'm not like a, I'm not going down any black diamond hills. Like I've, I've gone down like little bunny hills and maybe stuff that's a little bit tougher, but like that was also like a decade ago and I was still in high school. I went snowboarding once too. Yeah. This was back when you were writing letters to your girlfriend. So that's how long ago. That's how long ago that was. Oh, man. But you're in Calgary now. Okay, let me ask you this. What are you going to pick up? Skating or skiing? this winter. What's more likely?

Oh, God. That's a great question. I really want to do the skating thing. So I think skating might be more likely, but also I'm in Calgary. A lot of friends are like, man, we've got to go to Bam. We've got to go to Lake Louise. So maybe skiing it might be a little bit more likely, but I haven't skied in like so long. So like, I don't know how that's going to go for me.

But skating, I want to do. when you go to those big and I've, I've skied, like I'm a guy, I skated all my, I can skate. I've only skied like maybe six times. And I've actually been pretty good at it

because of the skating. Like I have the balance down. But the one thing about those, those, when you go to the Rockies, like you get these really, you can go on like a super easy like those green runs or whatever.

And they're very gradual. And it's, you know, you don't have to go on the black diamond or double black diamond. But, like, it takes you, like, you know, when you come, when you ski in the eastern part of North America, you're down a hill in a couple minutes, right?

But when you go out there, man, you can take one of those long runs and just kind of gradually work your way down the mountain. And yeah, it's, I have a feeling. I have a feeling you won't have a hard time finding friends to ski with there. You got like, you know, Bamp and Canmore and all that stuff, Lake Louise in your backyard. You know, even Jasper is not that far of a, of a jaunt for you up north. I suspect you're going to end up getting some ski trips in.

If I get my skating or skiing down, I too will also report back on the Monday show at some point. The conditions are not really suitable right now to do either of those things. Not yet. That was a perfect, me asking you about skating or skiing, the perfect segue into wrapping up this Monday edition of the show with our classic multiple choice madness.

Yes. A couple questions here to wrap up the show. As we head into training camp, Julian, let me ask you this. Which player do you think has the most amount of pressure on their shoulders heading into training camp this week? Is it A, Johnny Goodrow in Columbus, B, Jonathan Hubertoe in Calgary,

C, Matt Murray in Toronto, or D, somebody else? Is there somebody else out there that you're like, ooh, you know what? That guy's going to be feeling the heat this week. I'm going to say Jonathan Hubertow because Johnny Goodro is playing on a Columbus team that, look, there's maybe some personal expectations for him. They're not really expected to make the playoffs.

Matt Murray, if Matt Murray doesn't work out, the Leafs have Ilya Samsana. And if those two don't work out, I think more people are going to be upset at Kyle Dubus more than those guys. Jonathan Hubertoe, I think, is the most interesting of all of, I mean, there could be somebody else. But I think Jonathan Huberto, a guy who, you know, depending on which part of the country in Canada or the states you're from, you either view him as a heart trophy candidate or a guy who got success because he played a lot with Sasha Barkov and so of his. line mates. This is a guy who led the league and assisted and did a really good job establishing himself as one of the premier left wingers in the league. He's going to be 30 next summer

with this massive contract extension that's going to kick in as he's a 30 year old. And this window for the Calgary Flay. 10 and a half? Is that 10 and a half is the hit? I forget the exact number. It's a pretty hefty number. Yeah. Like, yeah, Jonathan Hubertoe now is being placed in a situation where he's seen as a replacement for Johnny Goodrow. And the

Gowgrey Flames hope to be this team that can not just make the playoffs, but like contend for a Stanley Cup. I mean, when you look at the core ages of those guys like Kim and Nazim Kadri as well, like we're talking about guys in their 30s. Like the window for them to win is like, it's now or pretty damn soon. So the pressure being on him to win and succeed there to keep them relevant, like it's going to be, I think there's more pressure for him compared to Johnny Goodro and Matt Murray. That's how I see it. You know what? I think it might be Matt Murray for me. And part of it is you're going to a huge media market, right?

Like Johnny Goodrow could probably escape. Like he'll get some national heat, but it's not like the Columbus is a major TV. It's like an Ottawa or a Winnipeg, right? Where you can, you know, maybe Carolina, you could maybe slide under the radar. Matt Murray, Julian, he's going to the belly of the beast. And they're rolling the dice on this guy that he can. go back, revert to the 2016, 2017 version of himself. And I kind of think that, you know, you look at Murray and you think this could only go

one of two ways. Either it's going to be a rousing success or a spectacular failure. It's very hard for me to envision a scenario where it's somewhere in between. And maybe it will be. But even if it's somewhere in between, you feel like that's not good enough. Like they need him to elevate. They need him to win a playoff round or two or maybe three for them. Man, I think he's going to have the most pressure because he's the guy in Toronto, right?

That makes sense. That makes sense. And maybe I was looking at it with more of a full season kind of approach to. But I think in terms of how people are going to descend on him, you do make a very good argument with Matt Murray. But also with I'm Samsona not being there, I still think that. you know, if Matt Murray doesn't work out, you know, there's another fail-safe option for them. And again, Kyle Dupas should be getting more pressure than anybody in this situation, more than Matt Murray. Yeah.

No, that's a fair point. One more question to wrap up the Monday pod. Man. I'm giving you the powers, Julian, to get rid of one of these things. What are you choosing? A, the entire preseason schedule, or B, the All-Star game. You can get rid of one of them and say, you know what, moving forward, we will no longer have NHL exhibition games, or B, we will no longer have the All-Star game.

Man, this is actually kind of tough. The players need those exhibition games to get themselves going. And how are coaches going to determine who's going to make the lineup? They need those games. What if we get rid of preseason games and we see guys play all sloppy the first 15 games? People are going to complain and be like, what the hell is this? No, but Julian, you know what sloppy hockey usually is? It's entertaining hockey.

It's high scoring hockey. It's fun hockey. It could be that. It could also be a zero-zero-zero struggle where people can't skate or people are just missing the net. It could be that too. Okay, here's the thing. How many pre-season games? games are the flames playing. Do you know offhand?

I don't know offhand. It's like a, it's like a good chunk of them. Okay. Ottawa's playing eight. I don't need eight preseason games to tell me that, uh, you know, Tim Stozel is a pretty good player. Like, look, each team goes into. You know, there's a training camp battle you could follow. Okay, but oh, I can't wait for watch eight games of the fourth line center. Like, this is the thing. Most teams have at most, we'll call it three positional battles, right? Like maybe it's a, but that's it. I don't need eight games.

I'm out. I, you know what? And then I like the fact that early in the season, if there's no preseason, look, if you're telling me you could have one preseason game, fine. I don't need eight. I don't need 10% of the regular season schedule played out in meaningless fashion year.

Like eight, eight is too many. If you told me the number was one or two, fine. I'm out. I'm out. And don't they charge season ticket holders like the same price or like almost the same price for these games? Why? What are we like what are we doing here?

I don't know. But also like the All Star game. Like I mean, I like the All Star game used to be really good. The All Star Game as is now, it's still not that bad. But it's just the league just trying whatever gimmicks they can to entice people to watch these games more and just I don't know. but also like there's a break.

I'm sure we could all use a break for everyone who's not going to be at that All-Star game. Yeah. Right? I like that. I don't want to get rid of that. So I get, man,

I guess I have to say preseason then. See? You're on the train. Oh, man. I don't like it. A scribe, who I will not name, told me that he has not watched like a preseason game in like decades.

I think they still kind of cover the game. I'm not going to expose who this is. What do you mean? first of all, this guy's worked for decades, and it's a guy. So I'm pretty sure we can narrow this down. He certainly works in Canada. I can feel that. Oh, my God.

Now we're down to like four potential people. Don't expose the mat like does not. We won't. Don't expose the mad. I know. But you remember for years, Red Fisher was, you know, for people who don't know, Red Fisher was a long time.

reporter in Montreal, the Gazette. And, you know, basically we cover the Canadians in their heyday from, you know, 50, 60, 70s, all of that right into the 90s into the early 2000s. And if I'm not mistaken, Julian, Red used to have a rule, which was, I don't speak to rookies. But he didn't, but here's my question. So Patrick Waugh wins a Stanley Cup in his rookie year. Are you telling me Red Fisher was like, you got to earn it with me.

and he never spoke to him in his rookie year. Could you imagine if we pulled down now? I have a legitimate question, yeah. Could you imagine if I went to Calgary? Well, I'm in Calgary now. I go to the Saladome and I'm like, hey, Jacques-upin-Tee. You're a rookie. I don't talk to you.

I could pull that. What? You got to have some serious cachet to do that. Right? Like imagine Matt Fairburn, who covers his sabres fries for us. He's like, I'm not speaking to Owen Power this year. It's got to earn. What?

What? I don't know. So sometimes we give journalists too much power. Clearly we do. I think so. Arpin, I wonder, will he speak to Slavkovsky this year?

I mean, if he wants to be the next Red Fisher, this is what he's got to do. Yeah, he's got to have to do that. He's got to not even speak to Slavkovsky. It must be like around the same height those two, really,

because I mean, Slavkovsky's a truck and like Arpin's pretty, built pretty big. Yeah, yeah, Arpin's pretty tall. In fact, let me wrap up the show,

real quick story with Arpin. We went, him and I went out for a drink and dinner in Buffalo. And we got to talk, talking to these people next to us at the bar in Buffalo. We were out for a drink. And we started talking NFL football. And, of course, Buffalo is, is, um, Bill's crazy right now.

And so they're asking us, you know, who is your favorite team? And I, you know, reluctantly, I'm like, ah, the cowboys. And Arpin is like, he's a diehard dolphins fan, right? Yeah. So on his way out of the bar, he turns around and tells everyone, hey, by the way, go Titans. And I'm like Julie, Arpin, what are you doing? Like, we had to get out of their people, like yelling and booing. Like, what are you doing?

Yeah. Oh, man. Shout out, shout out Arpin one time because before he went off the Buffalo. So he was going to Buffalo the same time. I was flying to Calgary. And we were leaving for our respective flights around the same time. And I didn't, I wasn't sure if I was going to see him. And then he, we ran into.

to each other at the airport, and he gave me a very big hug, and it meant a lot, Arpin Basso. So if you're listening to the Monday edition of the hockey show, thank you. I'm doing very well in Calgary right now, and it was really great to run into you at the airport, just as I was on the cusp of the biggest move of my life. Yeah. He's awesome. He's a great guy. I love spending time with him, except when he yelled, go Titans, heading into Monday night football.

Could have got you killed in Buffalo? Seriously. Like, yeah. Anyway, hey, listen, we'll leave it. Man, this was so much fun. This was, this flew by. It was fun. We want to hear from our listeners, too, about Mount Rando goalies that won the cup.

Maybe the last time you've penned a letter to anybody. Oh, my God. Any of that stuff. We love to hear from people. If this is what the Monday show is going to be like going forward, man. Like, you guys are in for a really fun time. No, no, this was an aberration. Next week, it's all about the salary cap.

Implications. Yeah, I can't wait for next week. week where we're going to talk about all the, who's going to make the fourth line of the Leafs? And is Raspus Sandine going to sign? And who's going to get signed to PTOs? It doesn't we were talking. I think Sonny Milano just signed a PTO with the flames, actually.

So, yeah, I can't wait for it next week to be all about that. Exactly. All about the minutiae of hockey. The fun and frivolity ends here. No, of course it won't. We had a ton of fun doing the show. Like I said, hit us up with any comments about anything we talk to what we'd love to hear from our listeners.

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