The Athletic Hockey Show - Calgary Flames catch fire, talking New York Islanders and New York Rangers with Arthur Staple, a brand new Hailbag, Multiple Choice Madness, and much more

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

First, Ian and Hailey talk about the red-hot start to the season for the Calgary Flames, featuring 7 shutouts over their first nineteen games, the Arizona Coyotes reeling off 3 wins since the inception of the “Will The Coyotes Win This Week?” segment, the Seattle Kraken playing like an expansion team, and more.Then, The Athletic’s own Arthur Staple joins the show to discuss the state of the New York Islanders, including opening their new home at Belmont Park, UBS Arena, with back-to-back losses, Ryan Pulock’s broken foot, and the increasing list of players being put on COVID-19 protocol, as well as the start to the season for the New York Rangers, the play of Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko, potential trade targets, and more.Plus, Ian and Hailey open up the Hailbag and answer listener questions about what Canadians do on American Thanksgiving, which NHL team off to a good start do they still not trust, and what do they pay attention to while watching a hockey game.To close things out, they run through a series of Multiple Choice Madness questions including thoughts on Rick Bowness’ decision to scratch Riley Tufte in his first game back in Minnesota last week, and which surprise individual story is the best to start this season so far.And, starting today at 5:00pm ET through midnight on the 29th, you can get The Athletic’s best deal of the year: $1 a month for 12 months when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back, everybody, to kick off your weekend hockey. It is the Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. As always, it's Ian Madison, Haley Salve. I'm with you for the next hour or so. Arthur Staple is going to stop by. Chat all things New York hockey with us, including the new arena opening for the Islanders. I guess we should also point this out.

Some important bagel talk is coming your way with Arthur Staple. So make sure you stay tuned for that. We'll also talk to them about the Islander's early season struggles. hasn't been a good start for Barry Trots' crew. On the other side of town, though, Rangers are off to a great start, so we'll talk about that with Arthur Staple. We'll also hit on the white, hot Calgary flames

who are collecting shutouts at a record pace to start this season. We'll also hit on the suddenly surging Arizona Coyotes and we'll answer some of your mailbag questions we got on Twitter. We'll do some multiple-choice madness, talking about Rick Bonas's handling of Riley Tufty and his return to his hometown. All of that is going to be jammed into the next 60 minutes or so, is Haley Salvean sufficiently caffeinated for this podcast because you're you're dragging a little bit on a Monday because apparently you did not sleep.

Yeah, back to our regularly scheduled programming of me being tired and dragging on a Monday morning podcast episode. Back on Mountain Time. Back on my wouldn't recommend sleep schedule. I can't explain it. I don't have a good reason for it. But I just, I didn't sleep. I stayed up late. Working on stuff. Like, I don't know. Are you the type of person to like get up early and finish writing a story? Because I'm like a last night I came up with a story idea. I was like, okay, I really want to get this out on Monday. But we've got the podcast. So it was this awkward like, ooh, do I stay up and try to get this done? So it's out before the podcast. do I go to sleep, sleep well, get up, do it before the podcast, and then record. And then I just ended up staying up and getting it done. And here we are.

And here we are. And stories posted. It's about the white hot Calgary flames. And are they for real? Are they legit? But yeah, I didn't sleep. It's stupid. I hate it.

Okay. Yeah. I'm more of a... Chris isn't making video clips of this. Yeah, exactly. I'm more of a... I'm pretty much... I think what happens is when if you...

you end up having, like if you have kids, like for me and our kids are older, but like, honestly, years of getting up at 5.30 and 6 in the morning, like, you get to a point where you're like, I guess this is the time I get up now. So usually I'm up at 6.30 and I like to, I do like to write in the morning more than late at night. But yeah, I'm, don't worry. I got a good sleep last night and I'm ready to go. Okay. So I'll, I'll compensate if you're dragging a little bit here for the 60 minutes. No, that's perfect. You know what?

Like, I used to work at, see, before I started at the athletic and right at coming out of college, I worked at CBC News as an editorial assistant and then an associate producer and then a radio and web reporter. And then I did a little bit of TV too. And I used to work the morning shift. So I used to just be up like in the office at either 5 or 6 a.m. And that was my life. Like I used to do the morning shifts.

It would be like 6 to 2. five to one. I did an over, like I did the kind of overnight shift once on the, you know, the 24 hour CBC News channel. So I was like in the office for four in the morning once, like four until noon or something.

Like I had the weirdest morning hours. And that, you know, then I started working at like restaurants and stuff. And then you're used to just being up really late and et cetera, et cetera. So I don't know. Oh,

what restaurants did young Haley work at? I worked at Shark Club in downtown Toronto for like three years, like basically throughout my four years of college. Yeah. Sports bar with like all the big TVs and stuff everywhere. That was a good spot. But then I actually, I worked at High Steakhouse, which was a lot different. Yeah. You go from the sports bar vibe with all the TVs, you know, working UFC nights until five of the morning because the Irish people won't get out of the

bar after Connor McGregor wins or something. I'm not even kidding. We would like turn the lights on and be like, please get out. Go celebrate somewhere else. But yeah, I worked at High Stakehouse too, which is a good spot. They used to have one in Ottawa already in. They closed. Highs, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

There was a highs. They have one in Calgary. I need to know what was, when you're working as a server at a sports bar, what fans are like the best tippers? Like UFC crowds? NFL crowd or are they all equally the same? Like there's no discrepancy. Worst tippers is like soccer, football, terrible.

This is the girls, like the girls at the bar would like, if there was like a Champions League match or if there was like a Real Madrid Barcelona game, people would be like, no, I'm not working on Saturday because the games are so early that people would come in for like brunch or they would just come in either at like 11 for an early game or three o'clock and they would you know for the most part people would and this is you know I would probably say that it's probably different at a bar like having ways which is like a local like watering hole for like soccer rugby whatever fans but like at shark club the soccer games are always the worst because the place would be slammed nobody would be drinking.

drinking and then nobody would tip. So soccer was always the worst. UFC was the best. Sunday football. Like it was all a hit or miss. Like it always depended on what section you had at the restaurant. If that made sense. Like if you had a, if you had an area where everyone was like having fun and they were really into the game and they were like buying stuff and you had a good rapport with them, it was always good. But sometimes you would get tables who would like show up and get like a Diet Coke and share nachos. And, you know, they would sit there for five hours for the entirety of an event and like not tip on it, right?

So it would be a hit or miss. But I remember soccer fans were, and I'm a big soccer fan. It was sad. They disappointed me. They were always the worst at Shark Club. Very sad. Listen, speaking to tips, Haley. We got a tip for our listeners here at the Athletic Hockey Show.

Right now, okay? We got the best deal ever on the print side of the athletic. as good of a deal as we've ever had for new subscribers. And listen, if you're listening to this, there's a good chance you're familiar with what we do here at the athletic and how we've kind of put together unique ways of covering sports, kind of a higher standard for sports coverage. And we believe that we've got the best newsroom in sports.

We believe that your local team is covered like no other. We've got some of the biggest names on the national level. I think Jason Stark and Ken Rosenthal and baseball and Lindsay Jones and Robert Mays and, you know, for us from the hockey world, Pierre LeBron, down goes brown, Katie Strang has done some excellent work. So what we're trying to tell you is, look, the athletic is worth it.

And right now, because we've got, as Haley likes to say, American Thanksgiving coming up. And you know what comes after American Thanksgiving. It's Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And we got the best price that you could lock in, best deal of the year, a dollar a month for 12 months to be a subscriber with us at the Athletic. So anytime after 5 o'clock Eastern time on Monday, the 22nd of November, for a week.

So from the 22nd of November to the 29th, you're going to go to the athletic.com slash hockey show. And you can get the athletic for a dollar a month for a whole year. So best sports coverage, like I said, for a dollar a month for a whole year in honor, Haley, of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Yeah, it's a great deal. Ian and I agree, obviously, I think the athletic is the place to be. We have so many great writers, so many great podcasts. And I think it's important that you specified it's an American Thanksgiving deal. You can benefit from this in Canada, but this is American Thanksgiving week. Let's not get it twisted. It's not just Thanksgiving. It's American Thanksgiving if Craig Custin's and Sean Gentile are going to make fun of our Canadian

Thanksgiving, whatever, about the American Thanksgiving. Here's a good deal. We can benefit from it, but let's not call it Thanksgiving. American Thanksgiving. It's American Thanksgiving. Yeah, in fact, we do some questions in the mailbag later about Thanksgiving that we'll get to. But I mentioned this off the top. You even alluded to this, the red hot Calgary flames, Haley.

The shutouts, just to give our listeners a little bit of context here, the flames have posted seven shutouts within the first 20 games with a regular season. Okay. For the context of the listeners, this is, this is mind-blowing to me, okay? Seven shout-outs in your first 20 games. The only other-game. Yeah, first-team games. Seven shutouts.

The only other teams that have done this were all in the dead puck era of the 1920s. You're talking the 1926 Ottawa Senators, the 1929 Montreal Canadiens, the 1928 Boston Bruins, the 1929 New York Rangers, the 1929 New York Americans, and the two, 22 Calgary Flames. Haley, what, like, your automatic assumption would be, ah, it's Daryl Sutter hockey, but like, explain this to us. How can you have seven shutouts in your first 20 games? Yeah, well, I'll say to probably one of the more kind of impressive and hilarious stats that I found too when I was, I wrote a story last night, you know, just can the, can the flames keep this going? Like, are they a contender or, you know, are they pretenders, right? And one of

things I found about the shutouts is the flames have more shutouts than seven teams have wins. The flames have seven shutouts. The Arizona coyotes, Ottawa senators, New York Islanders, Montreal, Canadian, Seattle Cracken, and Chicago, Blackhawks, and Vancouver Canucks all have less than seven wins. And if you look at just regulation wins, too, it's even more. Like the flames have more shutouts than teams than like almost 10 teams have regulation wins this season. It's kind of wild that, you know, that they're kind of going around at this rate. And I think the best way to explain it is it's a mix of the style of hockey that they're playing,

which is a credit to Darrell Sutter. But it's also the individual performances of the goaltender. obviously you don't stumble onto a shutout. You could get 10 shots against, and if you're not a very good goal, you're going to allow a couple. So it doesn't just happen by accident. So it's a credit to Jacob Markstrom. I think Markstrom had a really motivated and a better off season this summer. I know he was really pissed off to be sitting at home in Sweden earlier than he wanted to. He gave us this dry, pretty funny quote at the beginning of the season. Like, I didn't need to see my family that soon. I could have done with a couple more weeks or months away from, away from my family members back home.

But I think that was something that really drove him. He also had a, you know, a really up and down season in his first year in Calgary that was disappointing for him. So this is like a rejuvenated and really motivated Jacob Markstrom. And it's not a leap to see him playing like this. He was the undisputed MVP in Vancouver only two years ago when he finished fourth in Vesna voting. So I don't think it's a. stretch to think that Jacob Markstrom is an elite goaltender because he's shown us that he can be. He just had that kind of, you can look at his season last year in three distinct kind of segments. He had a really, really hot start.

Then he had the middle of the season after he got a concussion. He wasn't the same after that. It took him some time to get back up to speed. He had a really big lull in the middle of the season there. And then he finished the season really strong. So we're seeing, you know, elite Jacob Markstrom right now. Dan Vlodar has worked his way up to the National Hockey League. There was a ton of questions about who this guy is.

Are the flames making, you know, some of the questions this off season was, are the flames kind of making a mistake here going with an unknown commodity? And Vlodar was the best goalie in the American Hockey League two years in a row. He's worked his way over six years in the minors to get here. and I think he's proving that he's an NHL goalie. So it's a huge credit to both of these players. They're both 6'6. So they're big goaltenders who are good in their crease.

They're athletic. They have similar playing styles, actually, which is kind of interesting to watch them. But they both look really calm in their net. And there's just a lot of good technical skill that we're seeing from both the flames goalies. But like you said, Ian, like a lot of this is Darrell Sutter hockey. I think historically this is a feature of Darryl Sutter coached teams that, you know, his systems favor his goaltenders. And I think a typical trait that we could see with a Daryl Sutter coach team is that they don't give up a ton of chances and not a lot of them are high quality, which means that the flames don't need their goalies to steal games.

They're not just some Band-Aid covering up poor play in front of them. they're not getting overworked when they're getting in games. And all they need to do is make the saves that are coming at them. And we're seeing the flames goaltenders do that. But a lot of it is a credit to the way that the team's playing in front of them. And that's Darrell Sutter hockey right now. You know, one of Markstrom shutouts, I think the one game that he really stole was the 45 save shutout in Pittsburgh.

Flames weren't very good that night. Markstrom was incredible. that was on the tail end of a back to back, or not on the back to back, sorry, it was at the end of a long road trip at the beginning of the season. And he was incredible. And he went in and got a 45 save shutout in Pittsburgh. But some of his other shutouts are like 25 saves. Dan Vladara was a 27 save shutout last night. So like these aren't crazy, crazy like workloads for these guys. So the flames are doing a good job suppressing chances and high danger chances and the goleys are making the stops. You know, I, you know, I, you You're saying the flames have more shutouts than a handful of teams have wins, including Arizona. I feel like we need to either take credit or maybe it's some blame. But last week in the pod, we said, you know, maybe we need to kick off a new feature. Will the coyotes win this week? Haley.

The coyotes went 3.0 and 1 last week. They didn't lose in regulation after we launched this new segment. Will the coyotes win this week? They beat St. Louis. They beat Detroit. They beat L.A. Their only loss was in a shootout to Columbus. After we launched this, will the coyotes win?

I guess my question is, do we now need to move to another downtrodden team and share the luck? Or do we stick with Arizona and say, will the coyotes win this week? I don't know, because I said that they were going to beat L.A., and that is technically true. They did. They beat them in overtime. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like we just stick with it.

We stick with the coyotes. Like, we don't want to move to another, like, we don't want to move to the islanders. They've lost five in a row. Ottawa's struggled. Like, do we not want to look at one of these teams and say, will they win this week? And then maybe we give them the positive karma and the juju and all that stuff? Feels like if we say, will the Sends win this week? It's going to get you specifically into some hot water as the Sends writer.

Let's maybe not do that. Okay, we're going to stick with the coyotes then. Will the coyotes win this week? And they've got two games coming up here, including, now this is going to be a tough challenge for them. They got Edmonton this week. And anybody who knows the way that the Oilers are humming along here, they're playing really well.

It's really hard to kind of shut down McDavid and Drysidal. But they've got a game against Edmonton and a game against Dallas. That's it for this week for the coyotes. They only have two games. Edmonton and Dallas. Which one are they winning, Haley? Oh, probably Dallas. I think so, right?

Okay, there we go. We have spoken. This week's edition of Will the Coyotes win this week? We have taken a win over Dallas on the weekend. Okay, so another team that the flames have more shutouts than wins would be Seattle. And I think when Vegas came into the league, they kind of altered our view of what expansion teams could and should be. And maybe it set up some unrealistic expectations for the crack. But as you look at Seattle, Haley, they've won only five games so far this year.

They've lost eight of their last 10. I know they won their last game, so maybe this is a little bit premature. They did beat Washington on the weekend to kind of stop an extended losing skit. But like now does this feel about right though? Like where the cracket are, are we like, yeah, you know what? Like this is what an expansion team should be. Yeah, I mean, certainly this is probably, I know that there was some analytical models who rated them pretty high because they do have some players with strong underlying numbers,

and they do have a good blue line. They were supposed to have goal tending, but goaltending is so unpredictable. But I think we saw in a lot of preseason, a lot of preseason, like prognosticators were saying, like the Cracken are actually going to be good. Like this isn't going to be a typical expansion team. They might not be Vegas level good, but they're going to be good. Look at all the pieces that they have. And, you know, it wasn't just Dom.

It was a lot of different public models who were really favoring the Seattle Cracken. But yeah, no, this is what I think I saw Greg Wyshinsky tweeted like, yes, we finally have a proper expansion team. Yeah. And like they, yeah, they look like an expansion team. They look like a franchise that just got put together this summer. They're not getting goal tending. You know, I think a lot of people, we were talking about it on the podcast during the expansion draft, like going out and getting Philip Gruber. That was one of their big gets and free agency. And I guess everything's kind of a big

get when you're starting from scratch. But that was one of the moves that was going to make the Krakken good is, okay, they've got good blue line, but like look at their goaltending. And they're not getting good goaltending right now. And, you know, I think that that's not the only thing that's gone wrong with the Seattle Cracken, but, you know, we're, we're just, we're really not seeing a team that looks as strong as a lot of the preseason kind of predictions would have, would have said. I think you and I both weren't sold. Like, I think, I think you could have looked at that roster and stripped away all the underlying numbers, like, all the metrics, all the models, and looked at that roster and said, like, I don't think that's a playoff team. Like, I just

didn't think there was enough there. I think we've talked about this before. Teams weren't willing to hand out a bunch of stuff like they did with the Vegas expansion draft. I think teams learn their lesson and general managers were not going to just give Ron Francis what he was asking for. And we heard that the prices for some of those deals were really high. And I think they're feeling the, they're taking the hit from that. Like I think a lot of people saw the expansion draft, we're like, is that it? Like that's who they're taking. Like is something else coming here?

And I think Ron Francis got stuck holding the cards a little bit here. Like, you know, did you need to ask for a first of a third for Mark Dordano? That's not a great example because he's, you know, still a top pair defenseman. But did you need to be asking for that much right up until the end for certain players for side deals when you could have just, you know, taken a better player or a different player or a different player or. made the side deal for a little bit less than what you believed to be market value based on what Vegas got. I just don't, yeah, I just think this is what an expansion team looks like when they're not getting free cookies, not free cookies, but like all these treats and goodies from the GMs. Look at, look at Vegas.

Part of that Ikel deal was from the expansion draft. Totally. Totally. And that's not happening with the Cracken. That Vegas expansion draft is like the, it's the old Christmas vacation line. It's the gift that keeps on giving, right? Like it just doesn't stop for Vegas. Hey, I think a lot, and we're going to get to Arthur Staple here in a second,

because I think it's remarkable to me that the islanders are only one point up on the Cracken. So if you think about that, if you want to understand how poorly the Islanders have started the season, they're one point up on the Cracken. So we're going to get Arthur Staple in here in a second. but I just want to take one second, to look at the opposite end of the standings. And I think this is really cool right now as we start this weekend.

And a lot of times people will tell you this week of American Thanksgiving is sort of this kind of this measuring stick moment, right? Where teams will look themselves in the mirror and say, like, are we a contender? Are we not? Like, where are we? It's kind of a natural stopping point

for a little bit of self-reflection. And what I think is really interesting, if you look at the top of all the divisions right now, there's some compelling race. Like nobody has more than a two-point lead in the division, which I think it's pretty remarkable. Like nobody's running away and hiding. Carolina is only one up on Washington.

Florida's only two up on Toronto. Minnesota's only one up on Winnipeg. And Calgary is one up on Edmonton. As you look at those, those four divisions right now, if I had to ask you here on the week of American Thanksgiving where teams will often kind of look at themselves, you have to pick Haley, and it's like an early multiple choice.

Okay. Amongst Carolina, Florida, Minnesota, Calgary. Who are you most confident at the end of the year they're going to be in first place? Panthers, hurricanes, wilder the flames. Yeah, it's a tough one because, like, you like, you like, I think the central's probably been a bit weaker than we thought, you know, I guess one, two, like, half. of that division don't even have eight wins yet. So you would maybe think that you like Minnesota's chances.

I think the Carolina hurricanes have been the best team. I mean, they've only lost twice the season 14, 2 and 0. But the capitals have been good too. And Ovechkin seems ageless and like he's never going to get stopped, except they did lose to the Seattle Crockett the other night, who we were just talking about, have been really bad. The Atlantic's tough because, you know, Florida's got a two-point league. but then it's Toronto and then it's Tampa Bay who are kind of creeping up on them. Calgary,

they've been playing great, but they have two games in hand, and I think Edmonton's going to take over that division. So I don't know, this is tough. Like, I feel like I could, I feel like the best bet is Carolina. I think they have the, they have the best goal differential in the league right now at plus 24. The flames actually have the best goal differential, but again, they have games in hand. Yeah, like they have a plus 24 goal differential. they don't allow a ton against. They've got good goal tending. They've got the depth.

They've got the coach. So I'm probably going to go with Carolina. You know what? I think it might be Florida for me. And I look at that, to me, that metro division, it's so good. Like I could see Florida, sorry, Carolina really being challenged by Washington or the Rangers. And, you know, don't sleep on some of those other teams that might rise up. I just feel like that division's so strong.

Tampa's been hit with some injuries. I just think Florida, and Toronto's obviously played really well, but boy, I love the Panthers. I think that what they've built there is sustainable. So I would probably tend to go with the Florida Panthers. All right, Haley, quite the weekend in New York sports, especially when you talk from the hockey perspective. The Islanders open up the new arena,

the Rangers sneak out with a last second victory. Perfect person to bring in here. Talk about the weekend that was, is our senior New York hockey columnist. He's Arthur's staple, and he's going to join us, Haley, with an amazing podcast voice. And he's going to tell us why he's got the great podcast voice going.

Well, the Islanders opened their arena, and the Rangers had their dramatic victory, and I was stuck at home with a cold, as was the rest of my family. So it was nice to watch on TV and not really have to talk too much, but I've rallied to this point. And if this is as good as it gets

for the last few days, you can tell how bad it was. So I'm glad I'm here. Nice. Like I said, you got the nice podcast, the deep voice going, so we appreciate that. Hey, listen, obviously, I think the biggest story line of the weekend in New York hockey was the Islanders new arena opening. And like you said, look, for you, you were kind of under the weather. You didn't get to the UBS arena.

But you've taken the tour. You've been in there. Give our listeners a little bit of a sense of that arena, amenities, some cool features. Because I think any time you get a brand new arena, that's what people want to hear about. It's amazing. You know, covered the Islanders long enough to have seen a few of the places that they played. Obviously, Nassau Coliseum, anybody who'd been there in the last, say, 30 years knew that it was a place that needed some upgrades. And even after they upgraded it, after the Islanders had their little detour at Barclay Center in Brooklyn, it still, you know, it still was the Nassau Coliseum.

It was a building that was built in the 70s when great buildings weren't really put up. And, you know, small, cramped, exciting for hockey when they were good. but a lot, but a pretty dismal place when they weren't good. And Barclays was just kind of ill-fitting, not a hockey building, some obstructive view seats, primary home of the Brooklyn Nets. And really that was what it was built for was basketball. So the owners haven't had a great place to call their own pretty much ever. And so seeing this place finally come to fruition after years and years of years of trying

to get it, various owners going all the way back to John Pickett, who was the owner during the dynasty years trying to get a new building on Long Island all the way up to the late Charles Wong, who really kept them on Long Island and tried to do this. And now it's Scott Malkin and John Ladecki, who put a lot of great little touches in the place. You know, John Ladeke, as a co-owner, is a real man of the people. He loves to listen to what the fans have to say. There's a lot of things, I think, that have fan input. The Islanders Hall of Fame, which is a great thing, because it's pretty representative of the hockey Hall of Fame with so many of the great players. used to be in an inaccessible area in the Coliseum.

Now it's out on the concourse for everybody to see the plaques, a wall of records that they have in team history. And then inside the bowl, up at one end by an open-air bar, they have all the logos of all the different Islander fan meetup clubs from around the nation and around the world. I think there's one in Brazil too. So they've done a lot of things that are nods to the fans, and I think things that are going to make people happy to go in there.

And then just a brand new building in 2021. It's an awesome place to see a game built by the, the same people that build climate pledge arena out in Seattle. So it's pretty immaculate. I was there for the team's practice last week. And as the players were kind of walking out on the ice for the first time and looking around, they were about as pleasantly surprised as anybody to see their new home. And I think all the fans' reviews of it were pretty positive from over the weekend.

I think I saw a video of two of the players. They were doing rock, paper, scissors to see who was going to go out first and be the first person on the ice at the new arena. But did you see the, what's the green sand? What did you see this like blue dyed chicken sandwich that people were eating? Yes, yes. Is this a Long Island thing? Like, can you explain this blue sandwich?

It's important journalism, Arthur. The blue and orange bagels are courtesy of Don Rosner, who runs a place called Blue Line Deli. And Don is probably one of the biggest Islander fans I've ever met. his deli is a real is a real home for islander fans it's kind of a shrine to the islanders if you go in there and it's also home to really good long island bagels which are sorry for everyone up in canada but way better than Montreal bagels so um yeah and so the blue the blue and orange one which are the obviously the islanders colors uh they have their own stand in in ubs arena and the chicken part I think comes from Shaquille O'Neal's chicken company he was on hand to unveil that part of the

menu. So it's it's kind of a marriage of Long Island and this hot chicken. It's a unique thing. And I don't know if I would eat one, but we have had the blown orange bagels here in our house and they are good. And it's another way that they've incorporated a lot of local people. There's one of the bars in the building is Offside Tavern, which was one of the only Islander fan-friendly bars in Manhattan before it closed during the pandemic. So now their new home is in the building. So again, a couple of more nice touches that Islander fans on Long Island really appreciate. So is the bagel always, sorry, Ian, this is very boring. Forget the hockey. We need to talk about the bagels.

Is the bagel always blue and orange? They have others. You could get whatever kind of bagel you want, but the blue and orange ones, it's like a rainbow bagel. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those, but... We don't have fun with our breakfasts. You guys need to live a little more with your bagels up there, but yeah. So it's blue and orange bagel, cream cheese, and Nashville hot chicken? I don't know about the cream cheese, but there's definitely chicken. chicken. It might be hot sauce. I didn't check it out. But you might make it down here at some point.

We'll have to see. And now I'm upset that I didn't go on that road trip. Take it away, Ian. Haley's just obsessed with bagels because she covers the Calgary Flames. And it's just shut out after shut out after shut out. That's Hayley's obsession. Okay. I get it. Where are you going with this? I'm Celia. I don't even know why I'm asking about the freaking bagel. I can't eat them. But I need to know, though, like, look, I think a lot of people thought the Islanders would, they started the season, 13 games on the road. Five, six, and two, they figured, okay, you're going to go home, you're going to win. How much pressure is on this team now, State? Because this is a team that went to back-to-back conference finals.

They've lost five in a row now. Like, suddenly it looked like, is there legitimate panic around the Islanders right now? It's a mess. I mean, you know, I don't mean to laugh. They're in real trouble right now. The COVID situation. You know, Haley brought up that rock, paper, scissors before they went on the ice. One of the guys was Ross Johnston, who went into COVID Protocol that night after playing that rock paper scissors with Oliver Wallstrom, who somehow managed to avoid going on the COVID list.

But at the end of the road trip, they had two games in Florida, played in Tampa on a Monday, lost a pretty close game. And then the next day, Josh Bailey was in COVID protocol, their longest tenured player. He's still in Florida quarantining. He missed the opener of the new arena. Ryan Pollock suffered what we believe to be as a broken front. foot in that game in Tampa. He's out four to six weeks. And then the COVID situation, as Ian, you know, in Ottawa, it doesn't get better until it stops, until it hits the wall of someone who's already had it or enough vaccinated people to get rid of it. Anders Lee went in, along with

Ross Johnson, Adam Pelick, their best defenseman. So along with Ryan Pollock. And then Brock Nelson, who scored the only two goals against Calgary, went out with an injury last night against Toronto in the first period. He was a guy who had the fifth longest consecutive games played streak in the league at 316 and we're waiting to hear what the word is on him. So the breaks are really beating these guys right now and they've got six players in COVID protocol. They're off today. I don't know if we're going to hear about any more. It was a real makeshift lineup that they put out there against both of these teams over the weekend. They're having trouble scoring goals even before that. They've lost all six games by at least three goals, which they haven't done since their expansion

season in 1972. So there's a lot going wrong with this team. You know, the arena was great. and I think the fans are super excited, but this season is hanging by a thread. It's amazing to say this after 15 games, but they've got two with the Rangers this week. If they manage to get played and don't have any postponements, the penguins come in, who are on the rise a little bit and the Flyers, four divisional games. If they don't get wins in any of them or maybe in only one of them, then they're looking at maybe a 10-point gap at the playoffs after American Thanksgiving, and that seems pretty impossible to make up.

So like you said, it's hard to believe that we're here, but we're here, and it's difficult times for them. And I guess, Arthur, because you know, you cover both the Islanders and the New York Rangers, so maybe if we can transition a little bit. Don't tell anybody that. They get very upset when we say we cover both of them. Oh, right. That's fair. But I think people, yeah, well, everybody.

So if we can maybe just look at the New York Rangers here for a second, you know, I guess not even just in comparison to the Islanders, but just how would you evaluate the start for the season for the New York Rangers? is this on par for what we could have expected? Are they more middling? Like, what's your take on the Rangers? I mean, it's the opposite. They've been good and they've been lucky, too. You know, they've won a lot of games that maybe they didn't deserve to win.

If you look at the numbers, Igor Shostirkin really saved them in several games when they had their early trips up to Canada. They had a couple stumbles, you know, out in Western Canada, you know, blown a couple two-go leads in Vancouver and Edmonton. They got their doors blown off in Kansas. Calgary a few weeks ago. But ever since then, they've been playing really well. You know, last night with their late game heroics to beat Buffalo, wasn't their best game. Alexander Georgiop got the start. Their backup goal has been pretty shaky this year, but it doesn't matter.

They're finding ways to win games, especially against teams below them in the standings like Buffalo. And to do it in such dramatic fashion and take both points out of it is kind of emblematic of the way that they've played. They've been really opportunistic. They obviously have that high-flying offense. I think Gerard Golan is trying to instill in them an ability to play in tight games and play defensively when they need to. They have the reigning Norris Trophy winner at Adam Fox. They have Shasturkin has been one of the best goalies in the league. Artemey Panera and Mika's bandagedad. Chris Kreider's been on fire. And they have a bunch of kind of no-name, you know, lunch pail guys now who can kind of carry them through when when things are going a little bit

rough. They didn't really have that before. And that was the design of Chris Jury's off-season move was to bring in guys like Ryan Reeves, guys like Sammy Blay, who's, you know, who's been, who's out now with the torn ACL. But, you know, their fourth line now with Kevin Rooney, Dryden Hunt, signing Barclay Goodrow to a big contract, maybe a little too big, but he's a guy who kind of brings them a little bit more backbone when things aren't going well. And you see the results. They've won a lot of these games when maybe, like I said, they didn't deserve to, but points are points and it doesn't matter how you get them. And they're piling them up. And like I said, they've got two games with the Islanders this week, a decimated team. If they win both

of those and can beat the Flyers, too, they play them next week. You're looking at maybe a 10-point cushion between them and the playoff cutline, and that's going to be huge for them going forward. You know, you mentioned that, you know, Panera and I, Kreider is like turning back the clock here with 13 goals. But I'm curious, what's been going on with the guys that they took at the top of the draft? I think when the Rangers announced a couple of years ago that they were rebuilding. A lot of it was centered around Capo, Caco, and Alexis Lafranier. And it feels like from the outside looking in that they've just been okay or maybe just pedestrian, so to speak, to start the season. How would you rate Lafranier and Caco to start this season?

You know, Caco, he got off to a slow start. He was injured the second week of the season. And I think that really set him back. And he's just starting to get back. And I think in the last five games or so, you're seeing the guy that was the second overall pick. He's, you know, kind a part of their most successful, most consistent line with Panarin and Ryan Strom. And he's the heavy part of that line. Those other two guys are going to weave in and out and make a lot of fancy plays. And Kako is really a very much a North-South type player. And he scored a couple of goals where he's just plowing to the middle of the ice and beating goalies with some good moves, some power moves. This is the guy they expected to have. And I think, you know, the numbers may not be terribly

gaudy right now, but I think the way that he's playing at this point, you know, if he ends up being a 20-25 goal guy. That's a huge success for him, considering the stumbles of the last couple of years. And when it comes to Lafranier, you know, I think Golan has taken kind of a special interest in him and trying to make him into a more complete player. The knock on him, I guess, if there really was one when he was picked first overall, was just that maybe, you know, he didn't, he wasn't quite as instinctual moving his feet and making sure his body was in the right position. And I think he can fall victim to that sometimes because he is such a skilled playmaker. He started of the year with Mika Zabanajad and Chris Kreider played pretty well there, but I think, you know,

of late, he's been playing on a third line, getting pretty limited minutes. You know, he was close to being a healthy scratch, I think, on that Western Canada trip. But I think it's part of the bigger picture with him, which is they want to make him into a complete guy. You know, he's definitely a top six forward in this league. I know, I think they want to see a little bit more well-rounded play. And I think this is kind of the hard part for him. And if they can win games with him learning and growing instead of having to be a major contributor, that's obviously going to help him down the road. And, you know, for all the impatience that everybody has, because he was the number one overall pick, sometimes these things take time. He's mostly, you know, he's primarily a winger. It's not really

a position where you're going to, like, break out and be, you know, be a superstar right away these days. So I think, I think the pace that they're going with him is, is deliberate. It's not going to produce incredible results. He's still one of the leaders for them in five-on-five goals, but I think he's getting there. And I think he's a guy that you're going to see because they have some holes on the wings in their top 12. I think he's going to be a guy who's going to more and more gain the trust of Galant and probably play a much bigger role as the season goes on. Darren Dregor from TSN reported on Thursday that the Rangers are looking, or they're on the lookout for a middle six forward to replace Sam. Is Sammy Blay?

It is Blay, yeah. Okay. You know what? I had a little panic, make a question there, being like, wait a second. To report Sammy Blay, who's done for the season of the torn ACL, you confirmed that they're looking to add a forward. A veteran defenseman might be on the shopping list as well. What can you tell us just about what they're looking for and who might, you know, be able to check those boxes for the Rangers? You know, it's hard to say, you know, a lot of what they're looking for depends on clearly what's available and I don't know how much is available right now. But they do have Philip Heidel as their third line center right now playing between Lafranier and Julian Gautier. And Heidel is some debate. It may not be as strong inside the organization, but there certainly was before that whether Heedel might be better suited as the wing and probably a natural fit with Kreider and Zabanajeta. and then you've got to shore up your third line.

You've got guys like Goodrow. You've got, you know, you've got Dryden Hunt, Rooney those guys in the bottom six. So, you know, I feel like Seattle, which has stumbled out of the gate. I know Ron Francis doesn't like to make trades very much, but a guy like Callie Yarncroke to me is a versatile third line guy can contribute some offense.

Might be someone that you could pick up for not too expensive. You know, I think at the other end of the spectrum, obviously Arizona probably wouldn't be disappointed to part with Phil Kessel. That's a special situation, I think, when you go and trade for Phil. It needs to be the exact right environment. I don't know if the Rangers have that quite yet, but that would certainly be fun to see him with this group because they are such an offensively gifted group.

And as far as the defense goes, you know, they signed Patrick Nemeth. He's had a bit of a struggle on the third pair. He's played mostly with Niels Lundquist, a rookie that they like a lot, and Jared Tenority has subbed in. And that third pair has struggled a lot. So you'd think that they'd maybe want a more veteran guy. I know Mark Giordano was a guy that they talked about in the off season before he ended up going to Seattle. And obviously being named captain, they're not so sure that they would be willing to give him up at this point.

But it's somewhat along those lines, I would think, a guy who could be a third pair, guy who maybe doesn't have to play every night. The Rangers certainly have enough cap space to make some of these moves happen. And I think with the way that they've started, it's kind of one of those situations. where Chris Dury might want to reward his team for getting off to a better start than people thought and being a team that could be a serious contender for the playoffs. And think about adding when they lose a guy like Blay who played a decent role but wasn't a key contributor that you could at least shore up the wings there and go out and get somebody to at least encourage the group that he feels like they've done a good job and that this is a serious

playoff team. Well, listen, Arthur Staple, it has been terrific to have you here on the podcast. and hey, we're looking forward to what should be a couple of entertaining games this week. Islanders Rangers are always fun entertaining games. And like you said earlier, maybe it's a little bit of a pressure point for the islanders here if they don't come out of these with at least a win. So we'll look forward to your coverage from those games. Hope you're feeling a little bit better.

You sounded great throughout the podcast. Thanks for doing this. And we'll get you again down the road. Thanks, everybody. All right, we'll see. All right. Always great catching up with Arthur Stapel. By the way, we've got to give a little plug to his podcast.

He's going to have a brand new edition of No Sleep Till Belmont. Not changing the name, by the way, even though they got the new arena belt. No Sleep Till Belmont, the podcast coming out. And Denny Potfan is going to join Arthur for that. So look forward to seeing that drop a little bit later on Monday. Haley, why do we open up the hail bag? Because I asked for some questions from our listeners. We got a whole bunch of them here.

Okay. This one comes in from Cran Man. Cranman wants to know, is Thursday just a normal day in Canada, or do a lot of people take the day off and watch football? Actually, Cranman's real name, I think, is Jason. So that one's from Jason. Jason Cranman. I don't know.

Like, I feel, I don't know if I can accurately represent, like, what all of Canadians do, but I definitely spend the Thursday watching football because I love football. and, you know, I'm a degenerate fantasy football person who has my heartbroken every week. But I definitely spend the Thursday watching football. I don't know if I can say what everyone else is doing.

I'm sure you do too, but. I need to know, yeah, my favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys play every year on Thanksgiving. So I'm always, I'm always glued. But I need to know, Haley, did you ever work a shift at the Shark Club on American Thanksgiving where the whole day people were just in there watching football?

Yes, definitely. Like football days were, yeah, like people would do that for sure. Yeah. And those are the days where you just hope that you have like cool people because they're going to be there all day. I think a lot of Canadians take the Thursday, Friday, either off work or kind of dial it back and they sit there and they watch football all day. And now they've added the third game, right?

So you can pretty much go, you can pretty much go wall to wall. Matthew wants to know from us, Haley, what good team do you look at and you still don't trust them quite yet? So Matthew is wondering if we look at the top of the standings of the National Hockey League. And earlier we talked about some of those first place teams. I think we trust Florida and Carolina based on what we kind of said. But is there a team that started this season that's kind of maybe sitting in a playoff spot here? And you're like, yeah, you know, I don't know if I trust that team. Is there one team for you that you're a little leery on?

Yeah, like, you know, they're not in the like upper, upper echelon of the league, but I still don't know if what some of the California teams are doing is sustainable. Yeah. I don't, you know, I think there's a lot going right for the Anaheim ducks right now, and they've certainly kind of switched places with the flames and the oilers for top in that Pacific Division and top in the Western Conference the last little bit. And like they're getting good performances from Trevor Zee, Chris. John Gibson looks great. The team looks, you know, fun and, you know, they're good to watch.

They've been winning hockey games. Ryan Getslav looks like he's gone back a couple of years, too. And I don't know if that's something that they're going to do over the course of an 82 game season. But it's been fun to watch. I don't know if I'm completely sold on that being a thing, again, as I said, over the course of an 82 game season. So I would probably say that Anaheim's the way. one that I'm most skeptical on because they are higher in the standings than the other L.A. teams, excuse me, the other California teams. Los Angeles has been, you know, not as surprisingly good, but they've been better than we expected. I feel like that's the big one for me. Like, I think Minnesota's been good. The jets are starting to climb the standings. I think I was

more surprised when they were bad than they are now that they're climbing the standings. I was more surprised by their kind of bad start to the season. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to say Anaheim for me. Yeah, you know, it might be a team you just mentioned for me, and it's Minnesota. And it's because they've got sub-900 save percentage from their goalies. Like they've had an 898 save percentage to start the season, which I think you can ride that for small windows where you're getting kind of below-average goal-tending. I don't think that's sustainable over the course of 60, 70, 80 games.

So I'm real curious on Minnesota. If they get better goal-tending, I'm all in. Like I love Caprizov. Hartman's having a good season. Like Marcus Felino's shooting the lights out. Like they've had some, like they're winning games that way. But I just don't know that you can keep winning with sub-970%. I think they're a great story.

That's the team. I'm like, okay, I'm going to watch you very, with a very cautious eye here in the next four to six weeks. and we're going to see where you go. Ozzie's got a tweet for us, says, hey guys, saw an interview with Ian for the first time and actually finally saw what he looks like and I was caught way off guard, L.O.L. He makes himself seem so much older than he actually looks.

I was expecting a gray-haired, a gray-haired old-schooler as per his self-description. There we go. Ozzy was like, what's the question? There's no question. Ozzy was just blown away, apparently, at the way I looked and did not. Because you speak like an old man.

I guess so. Get off my lawn, all that stuff. But I think what happens is if you haven't seen somebody, like sometimes the voice and the face don't match up, right? Like that always happened to me as a kid when you're listening to radio and then all of a sudden you see the person. You're like, what? That's what, you know, that's what Rick D's looks like or whoever, I don't know why I said Rick D's, but, but you know what I mean?

Peter Man's bridge matches the voice. I think you meet Peter and you're like, yeah. I mean, I guess he's a television person. But if you just like heard his voice and then you see Peter, you're like, no, that makes sense. Yeah. But anyway, so apparently I didn't quite match up to what Ozzy thought I might look like. That's really funny. Yeah.

Matthew wants to know, hey, when you guys are watching hockey games, what do you tend to look for the most? Are you looking at the goalies, the forwards, line matchup, lineup changes, how active coaches are? You know, this is actually a really good question. I appreciate it, Matthew, because I think everybody watches hockey differently, right? Like, we all watch it. And there's no right way or there's no wrong way. I want to make that clear. Like, if you watch a game because you like the goalies or you like to see line matching

and all that, have had it. I'm just curious. Like, if you're watching a game, what's the one, is there one thing that you tend to look at the most? Yeah, I think it all depends on who they're playing against. So, for example, when the flames were in Toronto at the start of the game, I was really interested to see what the line matching was. I wanted to see who Darrell Sutter was throwing over against Matthews and Marner and Tavaris, who was the fourth line going up against who.

So I think line matching in games where you're up against, like, an elite team who can roll four lines. I think that's always interesting to look out for. If I'm going into a game with a specific story idea, I'll specifically watch that player and I'll do like shift by shift analysis on guys. I haven't done that. I remember I did that on Logan Brown when he made his like debut when I was on the Sends beat and I was specifically just honing in on everything Logan Brown's doing. Like sometimes that's the only way you're going to pick up on all the little things

about a player's game is when you're specifically only watching them and then you can go back and cut the clips, etc. I've been watching the goaltenders goalies a lot. I'm just, you know, you hear little things about how calm Marksum's been in net and you want to watch and see what that really means. There was also one thing that it's always when you get little nuggets from people. And that's why talking to people who maybe know more about, no more than you do is really helpful. I remember somebody told me watch Dustin Wolf when he's in net because he rarely drops down into the butterfly unless he needs to. And I remember like zoning in and watching him, like you can watch him now in Stockton,

but when he was here for prospect camp and he was playing in these scrimmages, this kid is always just up in standing because he's listed as six feet tall. He's not a bigger goalie. So he will make saves from standing, which is not something you see from goalies all the time. And I don't know if that's something I would have noticed if I hadn't been told, like, watch Dustin Wolf. He will stand at the top of his crease and he will stand at the top of his crease and he will. will make a glove save while standing up. Like he will not drop down because he's trying to stay as big as possible and he'll try to

stay at the top of the crease and be aggressive. So there's lots of little things. And again, I think it all just depends, like if there's a specific thing, you're going into a game to watch. If there isn't really anything specific, I feel like I sometimes I'll write down just like the line rushes to keep track of things. That was something I used to do when I covered junior in the American hockey league because

you wouldn't get time on ice. So you would, I would like try, I would like write down the lines every time that like, like, I would write down who's on the ice and be like, okay, well, it looks like Rasmus Sandine had 45, not 45, like 25 shifts this game. 45 minutes. Let's multiply that by 45 seconds each. And this is maybe what Rasmus Sandine played today. So that was kind of how we had to do it in the minors.

Sometimes I'll do that though as like a way to just force myself to like look for things. Like, oh, did someone get double shifted? Does someone not play it a little bit? sometimes that's a way to just keep you in check. Because you can wander. Like sometimes you're at a game and if the game's not great, you'd be like, oh no, like I didn't pay attention for the last four minutes. So it's a great question, but I think the way I approach games is always a little bit different.

You know, for me, just to answer this one real quick, I think if I'm at the arena, one of the things I love that you can't get on television is watching a coach's reaction. So if a power play gets busted up and they're struggling, you can actually sometimes see the exasperation on a coach's face or if there's a giveaway in their own zone or if there's a bad goal given up, you don't often see that on television, right?

Like there's not a simultaneous camera on the coach for the reaction. And sometimes it actually tells you a lot. Like if there's a player that you're like, I don't know if this guy is going to make the team or not and he gives the puck away and you look at the coach and you can see the shoulders slump or pounds the glass in frustration, it gives you a little bit more information.

like a little bit more intel of, okay, that didn't impress the coach. And so it's just sometimes it's just little things like that. But I love that, I love that, that question. I thought that was a great question. Yeah, I'll say too, like I like watching Daryl Sutter's bench management. He's really active on his bench. And you can always see some, like sometimes you'll see him. Like I think, you know, obviously Daryl can be short.

And he has, he can be short. and I guess he has that like grumpy. I don't even know how to accurately kind of describe the perception of him sometimes. But like you see moments on the bench where, you know, he can go and just give a player like an encouraging word or like a pat or whatever. Like I like watching the bench management and like pulling a guy back and be like, no, no, like we're going to go with this line here or like this is what we need. Like watching NHL coaches run their bench is really interesting. Like it's the littlest things on like who who's going to go over next on the power player. Like what line are we going to throw over?

Especially when you're at home and you can control the line. Like you have the last change and stuff. And you can pick which sides you're doing faceoffs. Like bench management's like a really kind of like nerdy, fun thing to pay attention to. Let's wrap up the show, shall we? Haley, like we always did. I always do. Sorry, with a little multiple choice madness.

Okay. So I want to actually play a little audio here. This first question is going to involve something that happened last week in a game between the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild, where Minnesota native Riley Tufti was all set to make his first, his NHL debut, or the first game he'd play in the NHL in his hometown. Big deal, bought tickets, you know, lined up family in France, all this stuff. I was told to the morning skate that he was going to play and then got to the afternoon and guess what? he wasn't playing. And I want you to have a listen just because people obviously were wondering what the heck happened here. What was Rick Bohnis doing and thinking?

So have a listen. After the game, this is what Rick Bowness said when asked about making Riley Tufti a healthy scratch back in Minnesota. As a 4 o'clock, he knew he wasn't going to play. So they had lots of time to cancel tickets or whatever that was. So I honestly don't understand the big deal about this, but whatever. He's a good kid. We had a good conversation.

There's no issues. All right, Haley, here's my multiple choice madness question for you. Based on what you heard from Rick Bonas, based on you knowing the fact that Riley Tufti got scratched in that game, how would you describe that situation? Is it A, that is worse than what Mike Babcock did to scratch Jason Spetsa in the Leafs Home Opener a couple years ago. B, you know what, it's actually right on par.

Exactly the same thing as what Babcock did to Spetsa or C, you know what, there's nothing wrong with what Rick Bonas did. this guy's just trying to win games and coaches in the NHL cannot be worried about sentimental storylines like this one. Where do you fall on this one, Haley? You know what? I think it's almost worse. It's tough because I thought what Mike Babcock did dispense was really garbage.

Like that's, this is a veteran player who, you know, essentially took a discount because he wanted to play in Toronto, play for his hometown team. He's all excited to have his family there. it's the home opener. Like, that was supposed to be a really special thing for Jason Speta. And he was scratched. But, like, with Tufti, like, he was led to believe that he was going to be in the lineup. He is a 23-year-old player.

I believe he'd only played two NHL games up into that point. He spent most of the minimal money you make when you're, like, a call-up to get tickets for his family and friends to all be there. Like, he didn't get them all gifted from the Dallas Stars. Like, he bought tickets for his family. family and I believe one of his teammates, like, helped him out to pay for it all. And he, again, he'd been led to believe that he was starting or he was playing in that game. He has these, like, great quotes about how meaningful and special it is, these great quotes for, you know, I played at the,

I played in this arena when I was a kid and to come and play here in the NHL with my family and friends in the building is going to be so special. And then he gets scratched and dead the day of the game. So did his family and friends just sit there and watch the rest of the team play without him? Like I think what happened to Spetsa was bad. But like this, I don't know, maybe it just feels a bit worse because of the like how young he is, the last minute nature of it.

Like he went and bought all this, all these tickets. He was so excited. You get all these quotes. And then there was a bit of karma. Like pretty sure the stars lost that game. Yeah. And handily. So like, oh, like, yeah, handedly.

Like, are we really going to say, like, good lineup decision, Rick, bonus. Because Riley, like, clearly taking him, I don't, I'm not suggesting that having Riley Tufty in the lineup would have helped them not lose that game. But it certainly didn't help them win by scratching him last minute and doing that in front of his friends and family. No. And, you know, the story that got me, and I do think it's worse than Babcock scratching Spets in some ways, which was bad.

But the story that got me was Riley Tufty that morning had talked. talked about, you know, when I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with diabetes and had to spend time at the children's hospital in Minnesota and remembers, as one of the things he got as a kid visiting the hospital was they gave him tickets to a Minnesota wild game. And he got a package of tickets to go see the wild and he was dreaming at the age of 11. I would love to be here and play. Like this would be my dream come true. And imagine having that and it's literally sitting right they're hours away from it happening and it gets taken away in that particular manner. I think that's wrong.

And I'm not a believer that coaches should, you know, oh, this is a cool storyline. Don't start people because it's a sentimental storyline. But there's a fine line. And you know what you can do for an athlete, how you can motivate them and how you can motivate their teammates. And if you were looking for a spark, you felt like your team was a little bit flat, wouldn't the guy who was an 11-year-old kid who went through a medical situation and dreamed about playing this building,

wouldn't that guy be the one who's the most motivated to play? Wouldn't the guy who had all the tickets for his friends and family? Wouldn't that guy be the guy who probably busted his tail on every shift and made sure he tried to score? Like, wouldn't that be the guy to start?

No? You would think so. You would think that would add a boost. Yeah. Yeah, like, and sorry, that's the story. I think I said when he was 11, he played there or something, but. Yeah, no, it was exactly what you,

it was the tickets that he was 11 years old and he was dreaming about playing. there. Yeah, it's kind of nutty to me. But hey, listen, one more question to wrap it up. Multiple Choice Badness here on this Monday. Okay. Right now, Haley, who would you say is the best surprise story to start this season in the NHL from like an individual standpoint? Okay. So who's the best surprise story to start this season as an individual? Is it A, Andrew Mangiopani of the Calcutt Flames, B, Troy Terry of the Anaheim Ducks, C, Tristan Jerry of the the Pittsburgh Penguins or D. Somebody else. Haley, who's the best story to start this season,

individually? I've probably got to go with Tristan Jerry, Tristan Jari, just based on the complete turnaround in his game and like the public perception of him after last season. And like he was public enemy number one scapegoat number one after the penguins lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Islanders last year. And it was like, yeah, if Tristan Jari makes that stop or Tristan Jari doesn't make that turnover, if Tristan Jari's better, the penguins have a better chance. Like he was to blame in very many circles for the penguins playoff problems last season. And, you know, he's got a shut out the other night against Toronto. He's playing really well. he's got the starters crease again and I haven't seen the same negativity around him.

Like I think Mangiopani obviously is a great story. He's got 15 goals at 19 games and Troy Terry was on, you know, every day it's just like, oh, okay, now he's on a nine game point streak. Now it's a 10 game point streak, 11 game points streak. And he kind of came out of nowhere. I think Mangiopani, anybody in this market or people outside the market paying attention could have seen a breakout season coming. I've said this before. I'd like to pretend out. a genius in picking him as a breakout candidate. But it was pretty clear that Manji Apani was going to take the next step this season because it's really all he's ever done.

So I've probably got to go with Jari just because of, like I said, the complete difference and turnaround from being, you know, to blame for a lot of the Penguins issues last year to, you know, a competent and like solid starter right now in Pittsburgh. Yeah. You know what? I, for me, it's the Troy Terry story. I've been so compelled by this.

This is a guy who's already set career highs in goals and points and we're not even at, you know, American Thanksgiving. And look, they're all great stories. There's probably a couple of others. Even earlier, Chris Kreider's off to a great start. But this guy is unbelievable. Like what Troy Terry is doing to me on the point streak and it just feels like every night you're seeing him get point. He's got points in, what, 16 straight hockey games for Anahun? Like, he just got shut out, I think, on opening night.

And every other night he is at, like, it's a great story. Guy was a fifth round pick taken in the middle of the draft. Nobody saw this coming. This is great. This is a great story. I love to see it. So I would go with him, but I don't think you can go wrong, honestly, with any of those picks. All right.

We will put a wrap about. on it, Haley. Now, what's your deal here? You said you didn't sleep. So you're hitting the hay here? You're going right to bed? No. No, it's a busy day. We've got a bunch of stuff going on. I'm working on a big feature with Dan Robson right now. So I've got to log into that, doing a little collaboration with Scott Wheeler. So got to do that. Got to walk the dog. So no, I won't be napping. Look at you working with the Wheeler and Robson, like a great teammate there. Yeah. Good stuff. Hey, listen, we look forward to that. And look, this is a great time to remind you, If you want to see those great features that Haley's working on,

whether it's the one with Dan Robson or Scott Wheeler, we got the best deal of the year for you coming up here. So anytime after 5 o'clock Eastern time on Monday, if you're not a subscriber with The Athletic, you can get our best deal of the year. It's a dollar a month for 12 months. All you got to do is visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. Again, a dollar a month for 12 months,

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