The Athletic Hockey Show - Cammi Granato can play too, Women's Team USA vs Team Canada doesn't disappoint, Chicago Blackhawks GM search

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

Hockey Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medalist Cammi Granato joins Craig and Sean to promote her new children's book 'I Can Play Too," the story of a young girl named Mimi, who wants to play hockey like her older brothers. Sound familiar? The book is based on Cammi's introduction to hockey as a youngster with her two brothers.Cammi looks ahead to the USA / Canada game at the 2022 Winter Olympics, discusses the competitive balance in this years tournament and her special connection with current USA star Hilary Knight.Head over to https://cammigranato21.com/childrens-book/ to order your copy of 'I Can Play Too.'Plus Sean and Craig recap Team USA's loss to Canada in the women's hockey tournament at the Winter Games and discuss the general manager search for the Chicago Blackhawks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It's Craig Custin's, everybody. I hope you are, the annoyance level is high right now. I just hope you're ready for two people that didn't get a ton of sleep. The team, you know, the team they probably wanted to win the game lost last night. Probably. I want to be objective. What's wrong with you?

Yes. Now, we can talk about it later. Of course, clearly the Americans were the better team. And you don't want to win that game, and we know that. And we actually, Cammy Granato, who is our guest today in the second segment, was really great on what this game meant in the prelims between Canada and the U.S. and the women's Olympic hockey tournament. Now that we know the score, we know that really you didn't want to win that game.

Who cares? Who cares? We're still tired and pissy. little bit, I would say, Sean? Accurate? Yeah, that's what happens when you have an 11-20 puck drop and you got it right afterwards. I know that's not a concern for you anymore. That's fun. Oh, my gosh. You have nothing else to worry about.

You're living high on the hog up there in Michigan. Fancy boy. I got nothing else to say. We're like, this is, this, this, this is no joke. Like, we're, uh, we're tired. We're in, we're in a bad mood to begin with because of the alcohol. of that game. And we're generally pissy people, I would say. That's not true.

I am. You may be. You may be. So whatever personality traits you have seem to be exasperated right now by A, a lacklessly, be the result. Here's what I'd say. Quick analysis, watching that game. I mean, the Americans were, I mean,

they just were dominant for large stretches. So I was certainly encouraged. Like, I'm watching them in this skill level, the plays they were making, they were going, okay, this is a fun team to watch. As we've talked about a lot, Sean, the next generation

up was very noticeable. Abby Murphy, baby. I knew you were just, you were going to be like, was she great? She's the best. I wish those jerseys weren't so hilariously ugly because I would have bought one already. Yeah.

She's what, 19? She turns 20 in April. 19-year-old Abby Murphy already winning everybody over. Like, she's so, so you can see, see signs. Like, when the women bounce back and win gold, the American, you know somebody like Abby Murphy's going to make, like, just dangle and make a great play. Oh, she's a pain in the ass, too.

Pain in the ass. The little, like, chicken wing down the goalie. I am excited for the Abby Murphy era, baby. I mean, that's the really fun part about this team. I think Cammy spoke to that is that, you have the next generation of players, you know, the LaRocs in the Zumwinkles and the Murphys that are playing with Hillary Knight and Kendall Coin and, you know, the core in some parts of that 2018 team, like you have that blend of the next group, you know, learning from

learning from the last one. And that's been a hallmark, I think, of Team USA over the years. And, you know, the result last night wasn't, wasn't what they expected. But again, we've established that that really doesn't matter. Who cares? It's better that they lost anyway. They probably weren't even trying to win. No. I just like the smirk on Abby Murphy's fate.

It's great. It was just, that was, so that was good. I almost tweeted out because I really thought Abby Rock was going to get a goal too. Like that, like she was really noticeable. Oh, God, yeah. I mean, and they need, they need her to step up too. Yep. Yeah.

Right? With Decker out of the lineup. She's the most obvious person to, to plug and play there. The first period was a little bit of a catch-22, right? Because it was a blast to watch. You're seeing kind of, you know, the forecheck that we've come to love by that program over the years, but it wasn't resulting in goals.

I think whenever Murphy went post-back post, and she should have scored four different times on that goal, I mean, that just felt, it felt bad. Like, those are the sort of goals that you need to go in if you want to beat Canada, right? Yeah. Again, we established that this game doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. The other takeaway when I was watching that is like, imagine, imagine watching that hockey. And knowing that that's really a standard game between those, between these two programs

in thinking that you want to eliminate it from the Olympics. Like, I just, I keep getting, it was a big discussion point yesterday that, you know, because that's the way it works at the start of the Olympics is you have the whole discourse about the talent gap between the North American teams and everyone else. It's misguided for a lot of reasons, but I think at the top of the list is like, these two teams are good enough and this rivalry is great enough to carry everything else, regardless of anything you. have to say about about the gap and how much whether it exists and how important it is like we need we need these two teams to to keep playing and it's when it's weird fringe stuff that that still seems to get a foothold over people are people really like I know maybe you know there's notable every once a while someone will run a column out or whatever but is I feel like this is almost a straw man argument like who's really like saying get rid of it

Like, we're all like, this is great. This is the tournament we want to watch. See, we say that, but I think there's a lot of people that don't. And I think that's why it's, it's a little bit, it's, it's not quite a strong man. Because it's a, it's an extreme position to take on the issue. But the amount of people, and we see it every day in the comments, we see it every day on Twitter, especially now when like maybe say an NHL writer gets a little bit gets a little bit more involved with covering with covering the Olympics and covering the women's tournament you know you see from

people like why is this in my feed why are you why are you covering this and I think that's a little bit more this is this is a self-selective group like we're we're people who care about hockey and we're people who care about the women's game and I think there's a lot of people that don't so I think it's easy it's easy but it's definitely it's easy to get hung up on a vocal minority. I think that is a little bit of a rhetorical trap. But at the same time, when it's people with platforms that are saying this sort of stuff, and when it turns into, you know, a discussion point on Twitter or wherever else, you know, it's kind of, it's kind of tough to avoid. It's tough to avoid thinking about it at least. Like, I've talked more about the

talent gap in one that's hockey over the last 48 hours than I have in the last five years. I didn't know what I was, so I didn't, I think you're referenced. referencing column. Yeah, we're talking about the Rosie Demando column in the Toronto Star. I mean, it was, it was a mess. I asked, in the Cammy Granado interview, I asked what I thought was a genuinely good, like, I was not referencing that because I didn't see that column. I didn't know this was a Twitter discourse argument that I was walking into.

So I was like, hey, you know, the U.S. is outscored. I'm like, you're trying to build up to play Canada and you've outscored your opponents 18 to 2. And I'm like, should we be concerned about that? And then Sean like went on a, like, attacked me. I felt like. No, you were. That's not what my question. I wasn't saying, should we get rid of women's hockey?

In the Cammy Grinado interview, I feel like you really went after that. No, I was not going after you. I was going after the premise of this. Let the listener decide in a few minutes. This trash bag column that got, that got written, which is just it's, it's, it's, it's, was ignorant to a lot, to a lot of different stuff. And I mean, whatever. I, if you want, if you want to read someone dismantle, you.

you know, the premise of the whole thing, Haley Salviant wrote something really good. And it's up on the site. And it goes into more depth and whatever. And then we have time or inclination to do here right now. But that's what that was. I wasn't coming. I wasn't coming after you.

I was a big part of a big part of the discussion, which again, you don't even really care about. Oh, my gosh. Here's what I do care about. And I don't know what we're supposed to share about of our internal numbers. But like this whole argument that why is this in my feed, nobody cares. It's hilarious.

So Sean was running point on a live blog at a game that started at whatever it was, 1130 Eastern last night, women's hockey tournament. And that the sheer amount of people that followed along in that live blog, it was our most successful hockey live blog. I won't give raw numbers. I don't want to get fired. But I'm trying to think back. maybe like maybe the draft or like it blew out any NHL playoff numbers like crush those

I was on I'll say this I was on I was on the expansion draft live blog I was on the expand might have been it that might have been the last one that competed with it I don't know man it's going to be close and I can I can tell you this in the three hours that that was up before or whatever it was yeah By the time I went to sleep, that thing had been rolling for a few hours. And it was certainly on pace to be the number one hockey, you know, live blog coverage that we've had. I don't know. I don't know if it gets there for a variety of reasons, but it was a, it was an unmitigated success.

The interest is, is enormous. So, so don't let the, you know, the good for business also, like, the right thing. All of checks all the boxes. Yeah. And I think a big takeaway here maybe is like, it's important to punch holes in these arguments as you see them when they come from people with a platform. It is. Like, that's, that's, that's relevant when it comes from an enormous, like a Toronto daily newspaper with, you know, a built and falling of however many people. Like, it's important to counter that with facts in reality.

because that is not the realm that the person who wrote that column was working in. Like it was straight out of 2002. It could have been written any time in this century, honestly. And that's not, and that's not, that's not the world we live in. There's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, in the game in, in, in, in the world than, then, then, then, then, then, then in the piece that was written. So it's important to poke hold.

in that as they come along. What gets tough for, I think for people who care about the game, and I'm not including myself in this, because I don't live it day to day. What's important, what's tough for people who love women's hockey and for people who cover women's hockey is just the vocal minority that just shits on everything that's associated with it.

And I think that's tough to parse, but it's also important to remember that there's always going to be somebody that hates something. You got to, you got to figure out which of those people matter and go after them. I think it's,

I think, right. So maybe it's, because somebody with a platform says something that is ridiculous, it's fine to go after that. But like generally, I like this,

this is, this fight is not even worth fighting. Like, this ship is sailed. Like, people are into it. It's fun. Like,

the numbers, from a business perspective, at the athletic, the numbers are great. Comical. Yeah, yeah. Like,

this is. Yeah. I'm not saying that, you know, it makes sense to quote tweet, you know. Some dude and sunglasses or whatever. Bob 2912 with a dog avie from Mississauga, right? Like, I'm not, I'm not saying that. But when it elevates to the point where you have, you know, someone with a legitimate platform, you know, making these dog shit arguments,

like, whatever, go after them. we have about like a minute here before we get to camy which is again this will be the best segment this second segment she was amazing always she was great awesome um i do want to touch a little bit on the black hawks i know monday show got into the ridiculous rocky warts exchange and gary betman whatever gary said like classic gary like defend the owners at all cost um i want to get of the GM search because I like that space. But I do want to say, like I said, Las, a note. This notion that Rocky Words'

apology came via email, via a forward to the email from the team president, I thought was ridiculous. Like, stick up the phone and call Las and just be like, hey, man, I lost, I just lost it for a minute. I'm sorry. Like, that's, like, be a human being.

It's a loser shit from Rocky Words. Anyways, I'm not, I just, I couldn't believe. I'm like, was that super weird, lad? He's like, well, you know, I'm like, you know. No, I know. And like, in what, it's funny that you have to really go above and beyond to be an NHL owner who, as we've established, are generally from a subset of people that are

jerks. I mean, that's probably, that's probably a fair way to put it. Rocky Wirtz goes above and beyond with that. Which is wild. To stand apart in that among, among your peers in terms of, in terms of being a bully and a clown, you got to, you got to really do something special. So, congrats, congrats the Rocky Words. We're all very impressed with you. I'm surprised you didn't make like Danny words forwarded.

No, Danny was, no, he made Danny mow the lawn for his insulin storing that. He's crowded. Go watch the, go watch the cars, Danny. spoke out of turn. So I do, I'd like, I don't know if I, like the,

the fact that the Blackhawks are just announcing who they're interviewing, I'm a fan of that. I don't, you know, this is a complete, like a complete aside. I always see the NFL teams do that and I'm like, can we just do this in the NHL?

Here's a, here's a question. Yeah. They're interviewing, they announced that they've interviewed Peter Shirelli. Mm-hmm. They've announced that they've interviewed Eric Tolskiy. Yeah.

Among some other people. people. I don't think you could find two people in the viable pool of NHLGM candidates more diametrically opposed than Pete Churrelli and Eric Tolski. So is that indicative of casting a wide net and trying to bring in different perspectives and seeing what you want for your organization? Or is that indicative of a search that has no parameters and they're just, they're just, They're just throwing spaghetti at the wall and see in what stuff. Because I don't know. I don't know.

Well, I mean, they just interviewed the Cubs assistant GM? Right. Like, what is? I'm not sure I get it. I at least try something. I don't mind that. I guess people are like, oh, I don't know. I think it could be both, though.

Like, it depends on who's running the search, right? And I know that like Ed Olcicchek is involved. Yeah. Patrick Sharp or something. Patrick Sharp and somebody else from that team. Because of course, like, what better way to, you know, hire a GM than consult a bunch of key players from the 2010 team? Like, what could go wrong with that?

But Hosa. Oh, Marion Hosa. Thank you, producer, Jeff. Who I will defend. Yeah, okay. Until I die, you know that. He's a good man. But, like, so I don't know.

I don't know what their process is, but it's kind of like the Schrodinger's cat thing where it's like, it's two things at one. Is it really smart or is it, you know, kind of indicative of of a kind of chaotic, potentially problematic approach to the to the whole search? I don't know. Yeah, there doesn't seem to be like a, hey, this is the kind of person we want this job. It seems like they're trying to find that out from the interviews. And I don't know.

I don't know if that's fine. Maybe you don't know. Maybe they don't know. Maybe you don't. I don't know if that's good or bad. If I had to guess generally knowing how some of the stuff goes, Peter Shrew. gets an interview because the, you know, the league gets involved sometimes in these, right?

And so when you're, if you're not sure who you want to hire, they have their, they have people that they're like, okay, hey, you know, this guy, we know Peter Shirelli is an experienced person

that knows how to be a GM, whether or not you, you know, it happened in Pittsburgh. It happened with, with the Pittsburgh search. Like he popped up and people lost their minds. And it was, you know,

whether he had it, whether he was a realist, like a viable. candidates for it, I don't know, but that came from the league. Yeah, that's what, like, I don't know, like, no one has told me that, but I know how these go generally, and that often happens. And I wouldn't be surprised if Peter's just on that, on that list at that Bill Daly had, like, Bill Daly has a big influence a lot of times in this. Like, people go to him and they, like, you know, and like, I, like, I assume, like, in Florida,

like, Bill Zito got that job. I think the league probably really, I think Bill Daly is a fan of Zitos and that helps the cause there. Like, I think this happened. right? And also when you have, you know, they like having that experience hand that the league likes that, you know, hey, we know, these are the people that, that, yeah, they play by the rules, etc. Yeah. And it's, and like I said, I mean, I'm saying it happened when it happened with Australia before. So I don't know if he's still on the master list. I don't know if Chicago's working off the master list, but he was, that's why he popped up in conjunction with the Penguins job. If you, if you're a Chicago Blackhawks fan and you're curious about Tulski, I would go, when I talked to Tom Dundden on the full 60 last year, his, the way he talked about Eric Tulski was completely different than the way he talked about Don Waddell.

Like, like, he clearly, um, has a ton of respect for the impact Tulski makes was like, hey, when you have a mind like this, you do whatever you, and this is not to contrast with Don. He was glowing about Don as well. But it was just like, For somebody who was an assistant GM or lower down the level, it was just really interesting to hear how much time Dundon valued him. It was like, I will pay him. I will try to keep him at all costs. That to me was really interesting because, you know, if that's your owner saying that, if I'm the Blackhawks, that that really means something.

And think about, I mean, the flip side of that is, look, I've known Eric on the internet for years and years and years. I don't know that there's, I don't know that there's a better person for him to, for him to work with over the last years than Don Waddell. That's right. Like that's the exact kind of person that can teach Eric and can, and that Eric can learn from in a, in maybe the areas that Eric as a PhD and a data guy and a writer coming up,

like didn't have, you know, he didn't, it doesn't have the, Don Waddle is a hockey lifer who can get anybody once on the phone. And that's just, that's the, that's the, Every agent, everybody. Like, people love Donnie. Everybody. Everyone loves him. We had him on the show.

He was like, like, yeah, he barely knew me from a random dude. And he was, and he was, you know, chopping it up and having fun and being honest and direct and great, right? So that's the kind of effect he has on people. And that's the kind of person that Tulski has been working on under for the last few years. And that ultimately is what's going to lead to the first, like, and I'm doing, scare quotes here, like stats person becoming a general manager, is it's going to be someone like Tulski or whatever that has that background, but also came up through an organization and held a bunch of different roles

and learned how to be a GM from a GM. Because there's more to it than just being smart and there's more to it than player evaluation. It's about connections and it's about learning how to pull off. trades and it's about being able to deal with age. It's about a million different things that aren't necessarily baked into the skill set of of a data analyst, you know, big brain genius. Yeah. So seeing, so seeing someone like Eric who is a data genius and a big brain, you know,

learn under Waddell for the last couple years, I think, I think it makes him a really intriguing candidate. it and I hope a viable one for Chicago. I hope he gets the job. I wonder if you then bring them in. Do you feel like you have to pair them with somebody that's, you know, or do you're like, hey, Eric learned and now he's got the, he's got the experience. And the other thing is, I'm just asking.

Do the senior advisors thing. Yeah, do the see. Yeah, just be like, hey, I'm trying to think who's out there. I know what you're going to say. Say it. I know who you're thinking of. No, I really, I didn't even come up with anybody. Pete Schirelli.

No, I don't know. Dill talent. It would be the good. Dill talent. Oh, gosh. No. Just kidding. That's not what I was going to say.

All right. Let's get to Cammy. I'm excited to see where they go. The one thing I was going to say is I was surprised Chris McFarland's name hasn't been. He seems like he should be in that group. We're at the point now with Chris McFarland where when he doesn't come up with a job, I just assume he doesn't want it. Either that or like the abs are like, hey,

just sit tight. We'll promote Joe. We're going to do the whole Kelly McCrimmon, George McPhee routine here. You get to run this powerhouse for as long as you want. This is the same. This feels a lot like the penguin search. I know it's easy for me to fall back on it because that's like my wheelhouse, but like it's mid-season. They're talking to some of the same

people. I had the same reaction to McFarland whenever he popped up with a penguin search. I'm like, he just must not want the job. All right. Coming up next, Cammy Granato, where we talk. Great conversation. And I want to get it in quickly here. we mentioned the name of her book at the end of it because that's how great a host I am. I can play two. I can play two is the children's book that she's written. And it sounds awesome.

I'm pumped to get it for my nieces and send it down to Georgia. I'm just, it was a great, great conversation with Cammy. So let's take a quick break and have that conversation. I can play2.com. That's where you can buy it. We are now thrilled to be joined by Cammy Granato. So we were, it's always fun when the conversation begins before we hit record. I regret that we weren't recording the first five minutes of this conversation.

I want to go back to talking about Donnie Granato making fun of Sean's drawers and in the size of people's bubbleheads. That was fun. Cammy, how are you? Thanks for doing this. I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for having me on. I do want to say 10 out of 10 on the Rate My Room backdrop, too.

We didn't get into that, but that's a great backdrop you have. I like the, you've got the fireplace and the couch. I don't know if you follow rate my room, but they do tend to, that would be a 10 out of 10. Thank you. You know what? I designed this for Ray as a Christmas present a year ago because when we moved in, the walls were sort of like a gray. And this room has a high ceiling. And then the fireplace didn't really pop.

And then the wood wall didn't pop. And then so I picked, I went online and tried to find like good office colors. And this blue really made everything pop. And then I found a really cool. cool picture on the from from because he loves golfing of his favorite course uh over the fireplace and then i found that a really cool couch to go and so he loves it and uh it does make he did a lot like with covid he did a ton of um tv from in this room and actually i was happy that we had redid redid it because it was um it was the backdrop for a lot of a lot of his segments what course is

that uh i think that is i'm gonna for i'm gonna it's in scotland it's like i think it's like like st. a like carill st andrews or something one of the one of the family It's not St. Andrews. It's, I knew it at one point, but I, I don't, maybe it'll come to me. Do you know any of them in, what are the Scottish? No, I knew. I knew one. No, is it.

Yeah. You're, I exhausted my supply right then. The photo below is him playing at it. And then that's the actual, like, you can see the same tower. So he, I, at one point, I knew. Sorry. That's okay. I forgot.

Oh, that's great. So, Kami, um, we wanted to have you on, so. We're all like book nerds, first and foremost, hockey people. So when we saw you did the book, we were like, okay, this is an automatic invite. And I'm thrilled that you're coming and talk about it. I love that you decided to go with the children's book because I'm sure, and I've seen you mentioned this. So it's like, you know, agents and people have been hounding you for years.

Like when are you going to do a book? And you're like, actually, here, I'll do a book. But it's what, you know, maybe not what you expected. Exactly. Like I have one in. write it since my kids were little because I remember reading sports books to my kids when, you know, we did literally 10 years straight of reading every night. And we had every book, we have our own library of children's books because we just loved reading. And they gravitated

to the same books every night. And a lot of them were the sports books. And I recognize there was like not a lot of representation of women. And I thought, wouldn't that be fun to do a story of a little girl that played hockey and was trying to play a boy sport? And so basically it's based on my experiences, but I separated the character and it's its own character. And it was just one of the things, yeah, there were agents that said, you know, let's write a, look, do you want to write a book? I'd like to, you know, write a book and I'll help you out with it. And it was like, I want to write a kid's book?

Nope, those don't sell. No, I'm not interested. So I just let it go for a long time. And then about three years ago, a friend of mine and I were just talking and I told him about my thought about wanting to write it. And he's like, why don't I just go write it? And I was like, yeah, maybe I, maybe I, Like, so I did.

And I just sat at the campground one day when we were camping. That's awesome. You know, I cranked it out. Pretty easy story to tell when all the things have happened to you. So I just, and then it was just getting, I lined myself up with my nephew, Dom, who was the illustrator. And I wanted to do it on my own because I wanted the family element to be part of the book because that's how I grew up.

And so it was great to have my nephew. And then it took us three years to get it to get it done. the writing of it, the book of it was written, but then we had to get the illustrations to match and then it was about editing. And it was a really cool process. And it's really surreal, actually, that it's a book now and it's out there, right?

That was going to be my first question. Who is the illustrator you hooked up with? Because that's like the most, that's as important as the words for kids' books sometimes, right? 100%. And I had, my nephew has never been, he never illustrated a book for. It's amazing.

He, he's kind of this artsy, sort of guy who always love drawing. But he did like, his whole dream was like, his whole dream is to be with Pixar. Like he loves color. He loves animation. He loves, so I would play this game with him online where you draw the picture and the other person had to guess it like through the app or whatever. And I was like, you're drawing these with your finger. Like these pictures are coming out like incredibly like clear and you're drawing them with your finger on a phone. So I was like, you're can you know, maybe the illustrator. So yeah, it, it, um, it worked out really well.

And I'm just super proud of him and the journey that he had to go on too to actually evolve the characters and come up with the colors in this in the design. So he did an amazing job. It seems like there's a lot of family elements in the book too. I read that, that the, the, the character has a special name, right? Yeah, yeah. So I wanted to honor my aunt, um, my aunt, my aunt, Mimi. I'm named after my middle name is Michelle.

And when I was born, they wanted to call me, Mimi. but they were just a little sensitive to my grandma because my aunt had died at 15 and it was a devastating, devastating loss to the family. And it was my mom's kid sister. And, you know, I heard a little bit about Mimi, but not a lot, but I just felt a connection to her anyway because I think maybe because I was named after her. And oddly enough, my kids would call me Mimi because I'd hear people call me Cammy when I was a little. So they would call me maybe sometimes. And I always felt connected to her. So it's really cool to honor her in the book.

and then because she died of a sudden cardiac arrest, I decided to donate to Craig Cunningham's, whose dear, dear friend of ours, who had had the same, you know, cardiac arrest on the ice and we almost lost them in the miracle that he's here, and he now has a foundation. So I wanted to line that up to you and make sure I donated back because I think it fits really well for Mimi

and for Craig as a good friend. So that's part of the book as well. Okay. I forgot you guys were close. Like his stories, I mean, that story is amazing. And I love that there's a connection now to that, to this book. I mean, that's, I love all that's just the inner weaving. Yeah, that's the neat part is like, when you, when you have a project that you're doing on your own, you can make all those decisions. And it was just, it just seemed right.

It just all fit right. And the family element, you know, with my nephew being the illustrator and then like honoring my aunt and just like the books about the siblings. there's six kids in the family and it's, you know, it's really, it's kind of a fun. I was trying to get that element of like understanding that family has a lot of power, the support that they can give you and the book, you know, shows that there is that support from the family. I'm still blown away by the timing of all this because we saw a couple weeks ago when we're talking about trying to get you, trying to get you booked.

We're like, okay, she's writing a book. And it was, okay, can we have her on, can we talk to her on Monday, February 7th? I'm like, all right, great. And that's, you know, look what happens. in 11 hours here, right? We're taping this on Monday. We have USA Canada, you know, tonight. So we have the book.

We have the first game of the Olympics between those two teams. I mean, it's just wild. It's wild and perfect timing. Yeah. Well, and that was the thing I was thinking about the timing of launching it. Like, obviously, we would have liked it done earlier. Sure.

A couple years ago. It's realized it would take three years. But we were like, hey, we're going to launch right when the Olympics is on. This is really perfect. So. That was, the timing it was really, ended up being really nice. And it's been really cool to see people embrace it. I've got a friend whose daughter and son have been reading it on a daily and they know all the characters.

And it just, I didn't think about that part. I was just so, like, engulfed in the project that I didn't think about what it was going to feel like when I knew that little kids are actually reading it and enjoying it. And that's really cool. And I was thinking, like, you know, if we can just inspire one kid, like, I feel like, I feel like, what makes us happy. So that's really cool. I'd like to hear more about the camping process. Just like I love the idea of just going away into the woods somewhere and saying,

okay, I have the mental space to do this now. What did that look like? Personal fantasy of mine disappearing. I mean, I wanted to go do this. Well, I mean, don't get me wrong. I was with my family. So my kids were there and my husband and family friends were with there. So we had four kids and four adults.

But when everyone, when you go camping, everyone just, it's like the air comes out and everyone's calm. So the kids are off on their bikes and we are at the campsite and my friend's reading your book and Ray's reading and, you know, my friend doesn't fame. Our friends are just like doing their thing. Everyone just wants to kind of their own space. And I just sat on my little chair, the comfy chair. I think I stole the comfy chair that we had.

One that wasn't one that was. And I just started writing. And it was just easy. It felt, yeah, when you're out in nature, like your brain just, it flows a lot better. So it was the perfect place to do it. And it was actually, it was like, it's a neat memory now to think like, I pretty much cranked out the story in a day on, you know, at the campground. So Ray, so Ray left you alone long enough to get it done is what you're saying. Did he watch the dog while you're doing it?

Yeah, I think the dog, we didn't have the dog win. So we're, yeah, it was neat, in talking about timing, it was neat to see some of Hillary Knight's comments. I don't know if you saw him after she, she had passed you on the all-time U.S. Olympic points. And obviously, I mean, you know what you mean to her. But she said, it just brought back her memories of your influence. She said the other night, that sparked the dream for me was watching you. And then she passes you on the list. Yeah.

I know you get asked this stuff all the time. But in this moment still, like right now, as it's happening to see you kind of reference in that way, what does that mean to see Hillary do that? I think what's really amazing is that the story between her and I is really amazing. Like, it's just special because she, she was one of the girls that was a product of Arwen. And you don't recognize that at the time until they're now the team. And when they won in 2018, that whole team talked about Arwin 20 years before how it influenced them. But with Hillary, she was at the camp, the very first camp we had right after we won. I think there was maybe six of my teammates to myself.

We had been running my family with my brothers, had been running hockey schools. And now we wanted to do a woman's one right after the Olympics. And we had no idea how many would show up. Normally, like a girl carrying their bag in the rink prior to that Olympics was awkward. Like nobody, they were like, Zet your brother's bag, like, you don't play hockey. Like people didn't realize girls played hockey. And all of a sudden, we had this, this Olympic,

experience were exposed on a national world stage and we win the gold, there's 118 girls showed up to the rink in Chicago. It was, it was incredible. Like, we were blown away. Like, that just never happened before. But kids came from everywhere to meet these Olympians, like to meet the Olympians. And that was us. And it was like surreal. Hillary was one of those. And there was an interaction that her and I had were her stick broke. So I gave her my stick and then I ended up giving her my gloves to wear. And I didn't know it was, I didn't realize till years later that that was Hillary. I had that memory of doing that with all the kids, but I didn't know it's Hillary. And then she had told the story and I was like, so cool. And then she was influenced to wear that number

because I wore it. And I just think it's just really, really neat to see the passing of the torch and to see it all, you know, that group was, we didn't realize at the time, but that group was the one that influenced. And now the 2018 team that won 20 years is going to be the same thing. It's really cool. I mean, that's the wildest part of this current team, I think, is the makeup of it, where you have Hillary and Kendall and that generation of players. And then you have the Abby Rocks coming in and the gray somewinkles. There's that blend of the pipeline really has started, right?

Because Hillary learned from you and Hillary and Kendall learned from you. And now they're playing with players who've watched them for the last 10, 12. you know, 16 years. Yeah. And that's, and that's the cool part about when you, when you're on the team and you become one of the older people. I remember Hillary's like, oh, my God, I'm one of the older ones now. Like, all of a sudden you're there.

You're the older ones, right? It's always weird. There's always kids coming in and you're just like, oh, my gosh. But that's the neat part is the, is the blend. And they seem to have a really good mix of players. And, you know, I think it's critical for the older players to be able to embrace the younger ones because sometimes some teams don't actually do that. there is a threat to them and I think this team seems to have a lot of great character and

chemistry so that that you need in an Olympic event let's let's talk about Hillary somewhere I mean she's been I know I know Brian is out and you know that that sort of changes the changes the calculus for this team but I think in the first in the first two games she's been she's been lights out it's I mean she's been at a next we watch her be so great for so long but but this is next level stuff from her I think so what it would be seen from her and I'm not getting a ton of like I'm seeing a lot of the highlights. I just know from reading about it. I know like I look forward to seeing the US Canada game because that's real time.

I'll get to see it. But she's her work ethic is incredible. She's physically like so strong, mentally very strong. She just knows how to score at ease. And it's kind of her canvas. You know what I mean? Like she can just turn it on and. She's just that pure goal score, but also like her fitness level and strength can propel her even further.

And I even saw that with Kendall, Kendall in the first game, just, you know, I shot a couple of goals. And it's like the older players. And unfortunately, Brianna, I mean, that's heartbreaking, like heartbreaking. All that work she did. And it was a use, it was like a play that didn't have to happen. Like the girl should not have wrapped her legs around her legs. And that was stupid. But I just feel really bad for her.

hard she worked and she was at like the pinnacle of her game too and was like really ready to like showcase her skill and help the team but but those those veterans um are seeming they're showing up right and that's what you need so yeah i'm super proud of my can't wait to see how this all unfolds and excited how concerned about there's always the blowback in these early games when the you know teams are winning 10 nothing whatever i think u.s has outscored their opponents 18 to 2 and 3 games. What's your level of concern about the gap still in terms of that growth in the game? You know what?

I mean, there's now more teams in there for their first Olympics. The growth is slow, but if you look at the historically, I mean, you look at the world juniors, there are blowouts for the men at the world juniors too. There is a gap. I will tell you as a player, the best games are the ones that you go. in knowing that you don't know that you're not going to know the outcome like I did not like as as a competitor it really sucked to train as hard as you trained and then you'd play a team that you knew the game was over before it started like you knew you were going to win before it started and that's

not what the competitors want but it's just where the game is at and the more the game grows and the more there's more leagues to support and the governing body is support the players like I was look at the Russians I think there was a couple 17 year olds right like that maybe in 10 years years, you're going to see, you know, another growth or five years even. But they just, I think it's just the having that support from their governing bodies to actually like keep the sport moving in the right direction. Because some abs and flows of teams, like Finland is a little disappointing. They were like fighting for, you know, almost won the world championship. And they haven't played so well in this one. So it's, it's hard. But yeah. And it's, it's tough with, it's tough with Finland too,

because there's roster issues and there's, there's problems. It's been a weird, it's been a weird stretch for that. I mean, there's incremental progress, I feel like, but it's still, it's still slow. You mentioned the Federation involvement. Is that, is that the single biggest? I know there's not like one lightning bolt solution for this. There's a lot, there's a lot of different factors, but is, in your mind, is Federation involvement in funding kind of the, the, the single most important thing here? Well, yeah, I mean, you've got to have, in some countries typically, like they're still trying to show that women can still

can play a sport, like women can play hockey. And so there's not a lot of, there's not a lot of the pool. The pools are smaller in different countries, right? Where you look at North America and the pools for the, you know, the depth that we have of all our players and the collegiate structure. And then, and then, yeah, the federation support.

It's got to get better in other countries. I just think that that's, maybe women's sports in general are speeding along a little bit quicker in the last, again, maybe accelerating a little bit more in the last four or five years. So hopefully that will accelerate. But yeah, you do need that support from your own federation. You need the support from the IHF as well. And, you know, not canceling tournaments.

And maybe play the U-18s occasionally. Like, if you can play the, you know. So do you think that the talent cap argument is overstated? because I know how I feel about it. Like, Alina Mueller is a really good player. She's on Switzerland. Hirokoski on Finland is like one of the best offensemen,

one of the best defenders in the world. Like there's been strides that have been made. And I think when you focus too much on the talent gap, I mean, it's more about how good the United States and Canada are. It's not, and it's framed, I think, problematically because it turns into slagging these other,

these other countries, when it can be more about how great, how great North American hockey is, right? Well, you know, so my stepson Lennon is over at the Olympics right now. He's playing for Canada, which is amazing on its own and a whole other conversation. We can just have me back later on if you want this morning. But he said he was watched, he watched the China play in Japan, I believe, the women's. And he said it was a good game because they were the same level, right?

So I think, you know, and that's what I noticed even at the one of we go to the world juniors. Like when we go watch, you know, like Demmer play Swiss or someone and it's a great game. But other games might be blown out. So, yeah, I think we are so, so deep and so strong in North America. So it is hard. It is going to be hard. But Finland showed that they were pushing, you know, it's just you want to speed it along, but it is a process.

And I just don't like when people are like, oh, it's the women's game. It's a blowout. Well, you know, when the men's the men. basketball teams play in Spain's playing another team and they're blowing them out in the Olympics. Does that mean like you need to like get all over them too? Like they're too good. Like it's just it's a problem. It's not just a problem in the women's game.

It's a problem in other places too. This will air tomorrow. So the listeners will have the hindsight of knowing who has won tonight's game. How much how much do you do you put on a game in this moment in the tournament between Canada and US? I know it's everything. I think someone said it's everything, but it's nothing or something like that. Exactly. It is.

You're just sussing it out a little bit, and you almost maybe want that mental edge. But if you look at world championships in the last years with the girls, a lot of times the team that's won, like when Canada and the U.S. faced, a lot of times a team that won first didn't win second. Like if you look at, I don't know what the stats are, but it'd be interesting if you guys look at that.

Because there are, there are, I feel like more times maybe it was like the team that, the team that won in the preliminary didn't win the finals. but I'm curious. I think I was noticing that pattern. But we played a game two days. So we had to play our last game against Canada in 1998. And then we knew we were going to play them two days later in the finals.

We both had clinched and we were in the finals. So that game was sort of for not either. But we at that time got over a psychological edge that we needed to get over, like a psychological barrier that we couldn't beat this team in big tournaments. And so that win actually helped us. That win, we were able to take that and two days later know that we could beat them. Like we had proved to ourselves. We beat them in one period.

I think we were down four to one and we came back one, six, four. So, yeah, six or seven, four. It was like a great comeback. So we got confidence from that. So it just depends. You know, it depends on the time. I think these teams have seen each other in preliminary, you know, pre-Olympic games. And then maybe teams will draw some for it that they can use, you know, in later games.

but yeah. Everything and nothing. Yeah, that's right. That's right. All right. To wrap up, because I know you got to run, Cammy,

because we're an awesome host. I don't even know if we mentioned the name of the book. So the book is called I Can Play 2. I'll let you wrap it with that. Was there any like runner up titles or what went into the title? I mean, it's self-explanning.

Yeah. This is all coming back to nature again. So Dom, who's the illustrator, and my niece Bailey, who played at Wisconsin, they came for spring break. We went walking in the trails

because we don't have trails. like this back in the Midwest, right? So we're in this beautiful, like, hike. And we started talking about the book. And my niece is like, you need to write it. And then she was the one that was like, and Domit's going to illustrate it. And it was like this whole thing was born about like, let's just get it done. And she goes, I think it should be called, although I can play too. And I was like, huh, she's like, it's the perfect time for that. And I was like, and I, in my head thinking, like, this is going to be a book about something that happened when I was, is it still relevant, but I can play to is still relevant. And so she actually Bailey came up with the name.

And it's just basically about anyone that doesn't think they can play, they can play too. Like there's a space for everyone. And that's really like the point of the book is like this little girl wanted to play on the ice. She told her parents she wanted to play like her brothers, but they put her in figure skates thinking, well, that's only the only thing that girls do on the ice. Like, of course, girls don't play hockey because they didn't in that town, right? So she's like, no, what I want to play too. So that's what the book's about is just anybody can play if they're passionate about something and it seems unconventional or it seems like there's no path and but there's an opportunity, like take it and you can play, you can play too. And that's what I think the whole messaging is really

about, you know, don't let it out. Does Mimi end up playing a Providence? Is that what happens? No, Mimi just stays. So we're hoping. So it's just Mimi in her journey to her first game and what happened in her first game. So it she stays into that time and we have a lot of different ideas for series. Oh, okay. So I just, it's teed out for the sequels. I always, all right. So I was looking for an excuse to just jam this in because it's one of my, it's one of my, it's one of my favorite stories I've heard about you. It's that you, what? You, you didn't really know that college hockey was a thing. Yeah. Until it's like, there was no internet. We're talking like Stone Age. Like we didn't have any information from the West or the East Coast that there were women's hockey.

So I just played, I was the only girl the entire time in my state at my age. There were ones that came after, but that I ever, there's no other girl. So I didn't know. So I wanted to play with the guys. I was like,

can I play with the guys? Like, I thought I was going to play in the Blackhawks. Like, I was like, yeah, I'm going to do this. And then the guys got bigger.

I was like, oh, wait a minute. It was devastating, actually, to learn that like my brothers could keep going. And I was like, I'm not getting bigger. So that, yeah. that was Providence.

It was pretty cool to get like a, I got a pamphlet actually that a dad from another team gave to my mom and said, we know someone at Providence College and they have a team and my mom was like, what? So I read it and it was like, oh, Cindy Curley is at the top of the stats list. She's my new, like my first hockey idol. Like immediately I read it. I'm like, I want to be her. I want to go there.

I want to score like her. And that was it. Like, it was how it happened. That's amazing. Awesome. Nobody recruited me. Like nobody wanted me. The only reason Providence said they would take me was because they saw me in a game

when I played out in Massachusetts. And so the assistant coach saw and was like, we should get her. And then, yeah, that was it. There was really no other recruiting process. So I think that's book, that's book four, I feel like. Yeah, I think that's the fourth in front of the series. It's me getting older. That's amazing.

Okay, I mean, thanks for doing this. Great to see you. Yeah. And you can get the book on. Canplay2.com, by the way. Oh, that would be helpful of us to actually sell where people can get it. Is that the best place for people to buy it? Well, right now, like, it's going to be in local stores in Vancouver.

Seattle's got it. It's going to be in the Hockello fame store. And we're just working on distribution for stores. But right now, if you want it, you can get it on. I can play 2.com. Yeah. Great. Well, good luck with that.

Thanks. I can talk to you guys forever. See? I told you. You got a half hour and then all of a sudden, here it is. This is, you got to be careful. Got to be careful. what you asked for. We'll be bugging you and get in in a couple weeks. I was going to say,

Donny Meatballs eats meatballs in the book, ironically. Really? There's a character named Donnie meatballs? No, there's not a character named Bonnie Meatballs, but it's based on my siblings. And his name, I used all their middle names for their names. His own name is Charles, so he's Charlie in the book. And there is a scene where Charlie's eating meatballs at the table. So Charlie Meatballs. That's amazing. There's a little Easter eggs just for the Granado family. You can get back and let them know. Oh, that's great. That's amazing.

Yeah. All right. Thanks so much. We'll see. Yeah. Take care. So is there any way, Sean, we can just limit our guests at Granados and maybe Hughes's and. She's so good.

So good. Oh, my God. What other granados can we book? I don't know. I think it's just, as long as it's a family tree, like Landon, like when Landon gets back, oh, he's. Landon. Landon counts.

He counts even, you know, when he gets back from the Olympics, he's such a great talker, shocker, like his dad. So, yeah, as long as the family tree, like, we'll get the Dom the Illustrator and like the knees. Needs to be some connection. Oh, my gosh. Love it. Man, what a blast, what a blast that was. And again, we recorded that on Monday afternoon. So we'll see, we'll see what happens in U.S. Canada game one.

but who cares Camie was good enough for none of that stuff to matter honestly like she said that games matters but it doesn't The beauty is she left us out right She's like yeah it matters If you have to get over some hurdle

But it doesn't matter really You actually kind of want to lose Because it seems like the team knows So whatever happens we can find a way To say it's advantageous for the Americans If the US wins great If they lost That was actually all part of the planet

I think that's where we find it That's right Coming up next Sean your favorite segment the best segment oh god you screwed me up you screwed it off for so many weeks now I'm screwing up

it's the only good segment on the show it's the only good segment on the show we'll be right back welcome to the only good segment on the show so we go into the comment section in our episode page on the athletic app as we've said tap your phone eight times

click your heels together wish upon a star flip the coin into the fountain That's the new edition I like. Answer the three questions from the trolls. 29 comments on our episode with Keith Handel last week, by the way. And they're from different people, too, which is wild. Well, I do like that Caleb live seems a live comment as you listen.

It's really funny. It's really funny. Just in there commenting as he listens. Caleb, if I'm sure you listen to this, start dropping timestamps on when you leave your comments because I want to be able to go. back for the Caleb B running commentary. From Nicholas K. This is addressing our ongoing feud

with the Monday show. Nicholas thinks that the Monday quote unquote shows he's using air quotes now. That their disrespect has gone on long enough. And the Selvian is running away for a few weeks after dragging Shane Don in this fight. It's really true. Those unfair stuff.

Shane Donne caught some shrap in the last week, so apologies to him. Big takeaway from Nicholas K is a new hashtag, Annex the Monday show. What could we talk about the Shade Doan thing for a second? Imagine Shade Doad's like, why are we getting looped into podcast wars? Also, who are these nerds? This discourse that there was some people that thought we went too far,

that we got personal with the Monday show, which I was surprised to see. Some dude. Because I didn't think we went far enough. No. Do you want to, yeah, we'll show you too far. You want to see personal? Mendez, your house is getting egg, baby.

Yeah, there was some dude that snitch tagged on us with Dom, as if I don't text with Dom every single day, as if I wasn't openly just like, it's a bit. Come on. We actually, do we have to say that we like Ian and Haley? Come on. No, I don't have to say it because it would be a little. why. Chris Jay.

You guys need to have a pod just called the Craig and Sean Comedy Hour. That after this one where we were just pissy for 45 minutes, minus the interview. Called Rocky Words a loser for five minutes. Talking about the USA Mount Rushmore, which we should do at some point. We will. August. Next bonus content episode on Apple Podcast. Oh, yeah.

Let's only do about Rushmore's every time. we have to do an Applepod bonus subscribe to God. Yeah, because we're... Does anyone notice? Because we're lazy clowns. In like two years, I'd be like, coming up, the Mount Rushmore's a rookie American defenseman.

We're going Mount Rushmore of Nebraska, Omaha. Jake Gensel, four separate times. Joe D, as a B used to, I will not accept any Drew Commaso slander. Buddy, that was not Drew Camaso Slander. I, if anything, I gasped them up because I forgot, I forgot that Straussman was, was in all likely he had going to be starting for the Olympic team. I am a BU, I don't even know if I've said this. Like I am, I'm partial to BU because my sister went there.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So I'm, you know, if I have a dog in the fight, it's a terrier's baby. So give me some, give me some credit here. You didn't, you didn't get, like, I do want to acknowledge. knowledge Lance T's U.S. Mount Rushmore of Hall, Chelyos, Leach, and Patrick Kane. Yeah. You know, just to get the conversation started.

If you guys want to sprinkle those in there, we will collect them and discuss them at some point. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, Lance is, you know, getting a good list. I mean, again, the point of the stupid Mount Rushmore stuff is delimited to four. So we're saying, Hull, Chelyos, Leach, one of the gold medal women, it's Kim, Pinnado. Michael Kaye saying Mike Madano I think that's an interesting interesting thought

I feel like he has receded from you over the last couple years but when I was growing up man like Mike Madano was king shit yeah I mean McDonald's in the conversation for sure I think so

some props for Trevor Zeger's hair early Gretzky Lake I agree with Caleb there should it be funny to me Caleb he says that Kessel didn't congratulate Yandel on his on the

on the eyewan that Caleb that should not be surprising to you I actually put it

on par with Tom Brady not mentioning the Patriots in his retirement post I love it I love that

a bunch of loser Patriots fans that haven't accepted what happened last year just trying to trying to convince

themselves that dad still love them and he just stepped out for cigarettes and he's coming back real soon

Colin C makes sense you guys didn't get Shane Don. The Monday show is the coyotes of the athletic show. Only 5,000 listeners. We know that. Also,

also rampant misbehavior between the two of them. Y'all are the bolts. Thank you. Just a well-oiled machine continuing win championships. Wednesday is the Devils. Thursday is the Leafs.

Friday is the wings. This is definitive. No explanation needed. Colin. Great. I agree. Lance T. though, tries to explain it.

I will assume that you think the Friday show is up and coming and will be a contender for the big spot soon. That's the Red Wings comparable. No, I like the Friday show. No, it's because it's run by a very mysterious, very serious man, Corey Promin versus Steve Eisenman. We'll see. I'm a Tennessee and living in Chicago, so I have no dog in the fight,

but the massive amount of Michigan fans living here has me confused. Hmm. Okay. Of the U of M fans I've met, barely any seem to have actually attended the school. True. This is true. Meanwhile, every single Michigan State fan I met is a genuine alum, and I've never had to throw a Michigan State fan out of the bar for picking fights. We would never.

Never. Will, I also would like to know what bar, jump into the comments. Let me know what bar you work at. I would be interested there. He's a bartender. I'm a bartender, by the way, and not just some random jerk throwing people out of bars. I like the idea of Will say, enough. Enough with the Michigan Discount.

Of course, you're out of here, buddy. He puts down his beard and, like, you know, takes his napkin off his leg. He's like, get out. No more talk about, you know, uh, Jim Harbaugh or Josh Gattis or whatever. Well, at some point, we're going to be able to take this show on the road. We'll do a live recording of the Tuesday episode. And I want to do it from Will's Bar in Nashville. Or go to Will's bar.

I'll tell you what. I'm going to get my ass kicked. Here's what I would say. Can I just say this? Will's right. Michigan fans and there's just legions of people that Michigan's their team, not because they went there or they could even get in, hypothetically, because I don't know,

it's cool to root from Michigan. I don't know. I mean, that's true with any of the blue bloods too. Yeah, I mean, not the Michigan is in that group. No,

but there's definitely that vibe. So like state fans are all very, I would say, like it's genuine. So I'm a good example. I grew up a Michigan fan because, It was just like Michigan game was on. Like state, unless you went there, which my parents didn't, they went to Western Michigan,

which I actually have a big Bronco guy. Shout out to the Broncos. Shout out to the Broncos. Yeah, then you probably grew up a Michigan fan. And then I went to my first Michigan, Michigan State football game and East Lansing as a freshman. And I'm like, oh, I'm switching. I go to Michigan State now. It's ridiculous.

Why was I even a Michigan fan and became a Michigan State fan? And that's how it works. All Michigan State fans, went to Michigan State, 10% of Michigan fans went to Michigan, if I had a guess. Yeah, you see that with Penn State a lot. Bama famously has, you know, the non, you know, the non-alum groups. I think that's just what you have when you have a school that's that big. One last thought.

This is from Lance T. I'd like to dispute. Unfortunately, I know plenty of green and white fans that never went to that farm. I don't, I honestly, I don't know any Michigan State fans that didn't go there. Fun fact. And also, I mean, come on. I know it's a land grant university, but we don't have to call it a farm. Fun fact, students from both schools have one thing in common. They all applied at Michigan.

Not true. I did not apply. I mean, I knew. Because you just knew? Like a 2-9 grade point. Some of us are realists. Lance. Eric R.

Hey, guys, I think it's obvious to you. It's will win gold in both hockey events, no sweat. Agreed. Also, since I subscribe to the Athletic, I'm now on Spotify free, so could you all start singing songs on a podcast? I think there might be a reference to me. actually singing a song on the podcast over the last couple of weeks. So, yeah, we'll do a karaoke song every week.

Okay. Will we? Nope. You guys jinx Brianna Decker, James S. says, I do feel kind of responsible for that. What a brutal. Cammy talked about that, but that's just a brutal, a brutal, a brutal injury to suffer. The timing of it. How do we jinx her, though?

Did we say, no way she gets hurt? I just, I mean, whatever. I assume that we'd put. bad energy into the universe for anybody that we mentioned on this on this podcast for better or worse um anything else do you like any of these comments Craig I haven't read him you know that we are retzzie coming jumping in and talking about about what a great dude Alex talk is yeah again go listen to the Alex I listen every day to the Alex Tech interview just to kind of I I fall asleep to it.

I'm getting yelled at for listening to do the Alex Tuck podcast in bed. Red also says he learned how to play craps on the casino floor this summer at his bachelor party. Can't think of a better place there in the game. So I am clearly thinking wrong there. I said, I feel like it's a bad idea to try to learn how to try to learn craps

for the first time I'm at the casino. That's just because it has been, I have personally failed to a devastating degree. Here's our second. I tried to learn craps on the casino floor at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh and I lost a deed to my car. So whatever. That's, this will be our second meetup. I will, any listeners who want to join me at a Crap Stable, I think that's, I want to share my knowledge and how to play it.

I'm very passionate about spreading the Crops, the ability to play Crops. I think everyone should know how to play Crapes. Dude, we, we need a CISO, it's been way too long, since you know, I've been in a casino together. Have we ever? Yeah. What are you talking about? We went to River the Pizza with some other media numbers who will not be named here. That's true, or not.

Yeah, I'm happy to teach anyone. So we'll do that as a media. I can't. Let's line up a tour, like a Tuesday show tour. We're going to go to Nashville to the bar, get kicked out, go to Vegas. The bar is in Chicago, for the record. Will is from Tennessee. Oh, I think so.

And he tends bar in Chicago. Oh, my gosh. We can totally make. I'll go to Chicago right now. Guess what, bro? Chicago's better than Nashville. I know everyone loves, like, parting in Nashville and whatever else. I'll take Chicago a hundred times out of one.

That's not a hot take. Chicago's one of my three favorite cities in the world, especially in the summer. I mean, obviously. Number one is Pittsburgh. Number two is whatever city Pierre LeBron's cottage is located in. Mississauga? What about, Mississauga? It's Lake, I don't know, it's that northern Toronto.

It's North Toronto. Drop the address. Do it. Yeah. Muscoca, thank you. Thanks, producer, Jeff. Jeff, drop the address. Everybody go visit Pierre.

Also, when I went to visit Pierre, we bought what they were calling, I think, Muscoca chairs, we got them for our deck. They're Adirondack chairs. Like, Americans know this. You know, the big high back. Oh, that's great. The Canadians. They can't call them Adirondacks because nobody understands the reference.

That's right. Any more, Sean? Thanks to everyone who left a comment. Lots of them. Now we get to pick and choose, which makes the last segment even better, but we ran long in segment one, so we don't want to get too much.

So thanks to everyone who left a comment. We read them all. We get a good laugh. Occasionally we actually answer a hockey question. Yeah. Let's reiterate this. I love the jokey stuff. If you guys actually do want to ask,

if you get a wild hair and want to ask actual hockey questions, go for it because we'll answer. I do want to say Mike Legg joined Ian and Julian Monday on the athletic hockey show. Like, because I was banging the drum. Like, why do we call it to Michigan? I'm glad they had Mike on. I told Max, he should do a story about it when we met a couple weeks ago at the, what was it called? What was it called?

Yeah, when you guys drove home drunk? Yeah, that's right. Hope you. I'm glad they got Mike on. I think that's a good, I like that. I think I would read a lot of Mike Lake stories. I got to listen to that. I haven't yet.

I didn't realize this morning until this morning that they got them. So yeah, I'm doing that, baby. I also want to pump up Arthur Staples' new Rangers podcast, The Garden Faithful. He's got Dom Moore on this week. Arthur just doing great work on the Rangers coverage. I know he had some big, big shoes to fill with Carpe retiring, but he's just killed it. It's been awesome to see. Shana's been awesome

I'm thrilled that we have Shana in the mix and now we've got a Rangers podcast so if you're a Rangers fan make sure you download, follow that, etc. Yeah, I work with Shana for the first time last night on the right up for the U.S. Canada game. She made me look like a

she made me look even dumber than I am which is a feat. So here's why I look like Shana is brilliant but also has like the work ethic of you know just a relentless drive. That's right.

And, and she's like, wants to help. Like, yeah, like she, she wants legitimately, is like,

any writers that want me to explain, like, that combination of like, wants to help others has a, has an insatiable work ethic and you're brilliant. Like, that's,

that's the trifective for me. Yeah. And guess what? Almost, almost for three, baby. Mean, lazy and stupid.

Uh, George Peros is Mike Russo's guest on straight from the source. That should be interesting. Also, if you haven't rated this podcast, wherever you listen to it, it's mostly an Apple podcast, most likely, go give it a rating. You don't have to, make sure you highlight that you listen to the Tuesday show specifically and rate based on that.

I don't want, like, I don't want the Monday show dragging down the overall. We all have to share the same rating system, which I don't love. I've said it. I've said it for years. Mac and Do is just dragging down. tracking down our rating. You're sick in the ship. So, yes, give us a rating.

Also, if you want to hear Sean and I talk about the Mount Rushmore of everything, subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts. You get all the bonus content from our entire network. This week, Ian Mendez and Julian McKenzie are providing the bonus content. No idea what they talk about, but I'm sure it's great. You start with a 30-day free trial, then it's 99 cents a month after that. Also, right now, you can get an annual subscription. description to the athletic to leave comments in the app for Sean and I for $3.99 a month.

If you go to theathletic.com slash hockey show. What else? Shapiro's joining the Wednesday show with Sivvy and... You just keep reading. I can just keep getting it. Keep reading. Let me just keep doing it. Jesse, Sarah, or you got Sean Shapiro who wrote a couple really interesting stories last week.

One. Shapiro's on a heater. Yeah, he's found his groove. He wrote on the coyotes and how, hey, people are concerned. Shocked to hear this. Hey, wait. League executives concerned that... About what?

Well, they're only going to have 5,000 fans in the building at once. And people think that may impact league revenues negatively. They should be so lucky. Like, we have, like, Sean had to, you have to, because nobody ever wants to be critical of the commissioner, has to grant, you know, anonymity to get these kind of honest comments. Go back and read the story if you haven't. Like, this is ridiculous.

Yeah, of course people think this is not a good idea. Like, why do it with people? Why can't people just say that? That's so stupid. Probably because Mr. Marullo is so respected among everybody, I would say. I mean, you can't speak out or the league loses their mind. So, oh, and the other story he did was an agent poll,

and those are always fun. The agent poll was great. Well, let's find a good American agent to get on this podcast. Got some ideas. Yeah, that's a good idea. I'm going to, I'll bug producer Jeff. We made it, Sean. We started off a little cranky.

I feel like our mood might have picked, like in the moodometer, maybe picked up marginally. No? The moodometer. The moodometer. Are you going to go back to eating that terrible coffee, drinking that? I'm going, eating it. Eating it.

I kind of had to eat it. That stuff was like molasses. Canadian Hotel coffee. Appalling. They must have known I was here. What if they did? They're like, oh, it's a Tuesday show guy. Yeah.

Let's send up the swill. I want to go laid out in bed and. croak have a good have a good nap shunny we'll see you thanks for listening everyone