The Athletic Hockey Show - Can Swayman and Bruins repair fractured relationship?

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Sean, Frank and Sean discuss the storylines that interest them the most heading into the 2024/25 NHL season, led by the contract dispute between Jeremy Swayman and the Boston Bruins, what non playoff teams will make the jump to a playoff position this season, will Matvei Michkov and John Tortorella live in harmony in Philadelphia, will Alex Ovechkin break Wayne Gretzky's goal record this season and who will be the first coach fired?Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. All right, welcome, welcome, welcome. What is up? This is the Wednesday show. It's the athletic hockey show. Sean Gentiley, Sean McAdoo. Frankie Crowdo is here. Again, we established this last week, just in case anybody wasn't paying attention.

Frankie's here every week now, and he's here for two segments. So I don't, I'm not a math guy, but I feel like that makes the show like 66% better. I'm not, I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know, but I'm thinking about one guy today, one guy in particular. Do you remember there was that kid in Boston who had the sign with all the parades that he went through? The Patriots, the Bruins, the Celtics. And he was like all these, all these parades, right?

Uh-huh. Well, now he can have a separate sign and there will be one contract negotiation on his sign. I want to know how that kid is feeling about the beef with Jeremy Swayman and the Boston Bruins and the first contract negotiation that I can think of where it's like Bergeron for years took less money. Tom Brady took less money. I don't know. Do you hear anything out of the Celtics ever? Like controversial when it comes to money.

I feel like that whole city and all their teams, everyone's been so bought in. and now we get the first contract hold out. So how does that feel? I'm psyched. I hope it feels bad. I hope that kid is bad. Right. I always thought it was wrong,

like morally wrong to hate a child until I saw that kid. I think he might be like 30 now, so I think it's okay. Yeah. This is like this is the worst thing. Like this might be the worst thing to happen in Boston sports in the last 25 years. if like if you care equally about you know the bees and the sun and the socks and and whatever else since like 24 this seems like or since 2004 this seems like this seems like

this seems like the low point like that that's that's that's as bad that's as bad as it's it's going to get for these for these kids they're spoiled a spoiled generation of Boston sports fans well and like for for the Bruins in particular they had established and we always talk about this right like they just established this thing where it's like everyone's going to leave a little bit of money on the table so we can be a good team. And I would even argue that the Pasternet contract is still somewhat team friendly. I know it's 11, whatever it is, like it's north of 11. It's a lot of money. But with the cap going up, that might still be somewhat team friendly. But here we go. Now you got a goaltender and an agent who are really stuck in

on their number. And I don't know if they're trying to set it because I think Shasturkin is the guy that's going to set it. But man, we just, we don't ever see this with Boston. Everything's so clean, neat and tidy there. And now it's out and it's in the open. And I think the rest of the NHL is kind of loving it. Well, I think all that said, this will be fine as long as nobody says anything publicly that really blows it up. Now, I haven't checked the headlines in the last couple days.

But I think as long as no notoriously hot-headed executives decide to drop a bomb on us. Do you think Neely could have gotten away with it if he was just like, yeah, I was doing a bit actually. That was a joke. Yeah. I was, I wasn't,

I wasn't serious. I'm not, I was in character. I'm not actually mad. Let's just pretend that never. This is the, is this not the number one thing that you can think of storyline wise going into the season that you're,

you're kind of looking at? Yeah. So let's get into it. I feel like this is a good start to the season and it's a dramatic start to the season. And it kind of plays directly into what our plan was for this episode. where we're going to go through, I don't know, 10, 12, 15 storylines at the start, see how interested we are in them and then figure out, figure out what our collective number one storyline is for the league moving forward this season.

And it feels like it's tough to beat, swim in Shasturkin, goalie drama, whatever, because these are high-profile guys, they're great players, and they're huge parts of elite teams. And it's something that feels like it came out of nowhere, right? Maybe not nowhere, but it's unexpected in a way that a lot of these things were, and it popped up right on the edge of the regular season. I guess with the Swayman thing for me, I wonder, like, how dug in are they? How far are they going to take this? Like, are they going to take it to December 1st? Is that what we're talking about, a William Neelander? And what does the number actually look like at that point? How different would it be? because now all the, you know, you get the GM or the president basically saying, you know, 64 million throwing it out there.

Now all the reports seem to come out that the goalie wants somewhere between nine and a half and 10 and they're offering 7.8 per season. Like, how do you guys just not get on a call and say, okay, we're like, we got to do this? Like, how do you let this drag out if that's how far apart you are? So, like, that's, I think that's going to be headline news. Like, I'm, I don't know if I'm 10 out of 10, but I'm probably 8 out of 10. on that being very, very interesting until at least December, if it drags out that long. And, you know, on some level, the Shasturkin one is even bigger. I mean, the number will be bigger.

The impact might be bigger. It's also going to decide what the Rangers do to some extent. Exactly. It's going to be far reaching. But the difference is he's playing, right? Remember, Schisturkin has one year left on his deal. he needs an extension. Swayman does not have a contra.

So it's not even a holdout in the sense that he's not holding out from anything. And that means we get this fascinating story over the first few weeks, days maybe of the season, where it's all on Jonas Corpusallo. Yes. The new starting goaltender of the Boston Bruins. I don't know if I can ever remember a situation where one person's performance, over a couple of games affects as much money

for somebody else. No kidding. Because, I mean, like both the scenarios, imagine he goes out opening night and has a 40 save shot. He's good. And a week into the season,

the Bruins are 3 and 0. They've given up five goals, and it's, everyone's fine. I'm there game two of the season in Boston on the Thursday the 10th. I've got that Montreal game in Boston. Like, they could potentially win on Tuesday. They could potentially get a shutout on

Thursday, realistically, if Montreal's power play continues to go 0 for 24 like it has in the preseason. So bad. And then we could be talking about how, yeah, I think they're okay to wait. Jonas Corpusalo seems to be fine. And to Corpusallo's credit, when he played in L.A., it was pretty good. When he played for decent teams in Columbus, it was pretty good. He should have a pretty good defensive team in front of him in Boston. There's no reason to think that he's going to completely look like he did last year in Ottawa where he was a gas can. Except that he was that last year.

You're right. And it's, you know, I was just looking at the Boston schedule. I mean, they start in Florida. I'm assuming that's probably the banner raising night. I mean,

this is the team that's knocked you out two years in a row, Stanley Cup champions. If he goes out there and looks fantastic against that team, hey man, plan the parade. Yeah, and if he goes out and looks terrible, it's congratulations Jeremy Swayman on making 8-7-5. I mean, I feel like you. Bussie's got to go in net first because like we got to roll through two goalies

before we get to like the real panic from the Bruins side. Corpusallo gets the ball. If he fumbles it, Bussie gets it, he fumbles it. He's then Swainman's probably getting $9 million. I feel like it is the first three starts for the Bruins. And the formula is you start at $7.5 million and every goal against is another $100,000. This is like for, and for Corpusala, this is like, this is the old tweet. Like, I accidentally became important at work and it's ruined my life.

Like that's what, that's where Corpusillo finds himself now. And don't forget, they're paying him like a. three million like it they're carried a three million dollar cap in he was all he was all psyched to just get paid and start 18 times this season like oops oopsies and oh by the way if he's getting shelled and lindus old mark has a shutout game one in ottawa i mean that boston crowd is going to go absolutely nuts it's swamming for all mark who says no yeah it's eight out of ten this is eight out of ten i'll be watching this like i'll be getting getting the sports scan every day reading this headline.

I feel like by February we'll be past this. Both guys will be signed. That's my concern. And we'll look back and we'll, okay, you know, Swamen missed a few games, but all's well that ends well.

But to start the season, hold on, hold on, DGB, what if he comes back like November 31st and he has the Nealander year? Remember the year that Nealander sat out? And he came back and he was awful that year.

What if the goalie comes back and he does that? That's not helping Boston, is it? In the here and now, like next year he'll be fine. He'll have a full summer. You know, he'll have a real training camp. And goalies are weird. I mean, second line winger is that. So I think that's our headline is that Frankie's reporting November 31st as the signing date.

Yeah. I am not reporting that. Text or anybody that you're going to pass on. Okay. Do not hold me to that. I think it's done. I think it's going to be done. If I had to, you know, hedge a bet on.

when this gets done, sometime in October. I think this gets done. I know there's certain pressure points, but I just think they're, and Jeff, JD's telling us there's no November 31st. Yeah, 31 days has November,

as the old saying goes. But I think at some point in October, this gets done. I don't think there has to be a certain pressure point. I think they're just going to talk. They're going to figure it out because it's not good for the player. It's not good for the team. It's just not good for anyone involved.

I think I'm back up to an eight on this. I was going to say seven out of ten on my end because, you know, everybody loves to get psyched about contract dramas in the NHL. It's all well and good, but so often it just ends the way you expected it would originally, like just in a little bit longer time span. But I'm back up to an eight.

I'm all in on this because we get to watch Swamen if and when he comes back for however long it is, right? We get to track how he's playing, whether he's great, whether he's good, whether he's bad, and just clock what that means for the rest of the Atlantic Division, the rest of the Eastern Conference. It's a goalie, right?

I mean, at the end of the day, like, all right, Neilander sits out a copy. He was the second line winger on a decent team. This is the goaltender, man. Plus, goaltenders are so weird anyways. Who's to say that Jeremy Swamen wasn't going to have a pretty mediocre season just because sometimes goalies do that? Pretty good story from Fluto Shenzawa on the site,

a couple days ago talking about, I mean, he's covered Swayman for, for years now. So a little bit of a look into the way that dude seems like he's wired. And there's some interesting nuggets in there from Fluto. I don't want to, I don't want to paraphrase them and get anything wrong. But if you want to know the kind of dude that it seems like we're dealing with here and Jeremy Swamman, I would highly suggest to check that out on the Bruins page. Let's just say there's some hard feelings from the arbitration last year. God, to put it that way.

Remember what the Bruins put out that? super weird behind the scenes footage of them deciding to trade Tyler Sagan years and years ago. And you were like, why did they put that? How much would you pay for behind the scenes of that arbitration hearing? Like for, you know, the Amazon series or whatever to be back here. My God. What did they say to this kid? You don't think that maybe came up over the spring whenever they were filming the Jeremy

Swam and episode of the Amazon show? Like that seems like the arbitration stuff doesn't seem like it's left that. dude's mind since it happened. So I wouldn't be surprised to see him bring it up on the Amazon show. And it seems like that's something that potentially happened. You know what, Sean, it's so against the grain of anything anyone has ever told an athlete when it comes to those kinds of confrontations. You know, like, it's just business. You got to move on. You got to forget about it. You got to flush it. It sounds like he did the complete opposite, which is crazy. Like, no one advises that.

No one tells you, hold on to everything they said. You never go full time. You never. Don't let it go. And he is definitely, if that's the case, which it sounds like it might be, he is wired differently. And if you're, but if you're like an outwardly kind of motivated guy who internalizes slight and uses them to motivate you and all that sort of stuff, that's a standard operating procedure for a lot of people.

And that's, and that helps a lot of guys make it the league. So then you make it to the league and the slites are coming from your team in the front office and whatever else. Like what like what do you do? If you're hardwired to just take negative shit that people say about you and use it as coal in the in the furnace. Oh yeah. But then it comes from the team who theoretically you want to sign with long term. And you want to win for and you want to win for. This is the dude well for who watched the Michael Jordan documentary and when.

Yeah. That's normal behavior. that's what I should be like. Totally. And I took that personally. Glad they didn't take Michael Jordan. If we don't give this a 10 out of 10, Jeremy Swayman might take that personally. Yeah.

I think I'm up to a 9 actually, just for the next time I got locked to swim in. Sean, where are you out on this? We got an 8 from Frankie and 9 from me. I'll go probably the same number they're going to wind up. And I'll go 8.5. Nice. All right. That's going to be tough.

beat. All right, we're going to be quicker with going through some of these, but I think we, I think we have our favorite in the clubhouse here. We're all three of us seem like we're obsessed with swam and into a lesser degree just circling. Great. Um, Ovesh and Goldchase, where are we at on this? I'm, I'll, I'll start. I feel like I'm less interested in it than I would have guessed a few years ago. There's something about this that feels very anti-climactic and strange. Yeah, I'm, I'm probably like mid on this. like six, six and a half. And it's not like, I think it's going to happen.

I don't think it necessarily happens this season. I feel like 42 might be a little rich. So if he gets to 32 to 36 goals, I'm like, okay, we're watching for it. But ultimately, I think it happens, you know, next season. So I'm, you know, it'll be cool to see him do it when he finally does it, but I'm not sold on him doing it this year. I am also not sold on him doing it this year, but I'm more into this story because a chase is fantastic in sports. You know, that you kind of, in your mind, you know how many he has to get. Is he ahead of the pace?

Is he behind? And certainly if he falls significantly behind early on and you kind of know what's not going to happen this year, then it becomes sort of a non-story. I'm not convinced that's going to happen because this guy is. man, you put that carrot in front of him. I could see him exceeding expectations. I know he got off to the really slow start last year. And that kind of torpedoed a lot of the excitement. But could it happen again?

Yeah. But I mean, this is also the guy that I mean, he could have nine goals in a week. He can do it. He's also going to. He's also playing with better players consistently this year. Like they figured out that he works pretty well with. Strom. They brought a Mangiopani, who's a pretty decent playmaker on the right side, right? Like, that's a much more legit top line now than they were rolling out there with Kuznet Sob and whoever else last season.

So, like, I think he can do it. I'm much more interested in the Caps as a team. I think he needs to get a little bit closer to it before it really starts to hit home because 42 seems like a big number. So I think he's going to need to get, you know, in the high 20s before I'm really on a high alert personally. So yeah, that's why I got down at six. The Caps are a fascinating team. I can't remember in recent, recent memory at least, a playoff team that on paper improved as significantly as the Caps did and yet wait into the season with nobody picking them to make the playoffs. Like we have all given that spot to question mark either in the Atlantic or. It's completely up for grabs.

Yeah. Yeah, it could be five in the Atlantic. I haven't seen a list of predictions that have the Capitals in the playoffs. and they're sitting there going, we were there last year and we got better. So, you know, what's the mystery here? DGB, let's worry out and then we'll say seven, I guess. Ovechkin? Yeah.

I'm an eight. I think until he falls out, like I'm sort of in the same place as you accept, I think I'm starting from the assumption that he's going to take a real run at it and you're sort of wait and see. If he falls behind, we both end up in the same spot. But I think, I think he might surprise us a bit. We got into this one a little bit with the last question, but I,

with the last topic, but I think it's worth bringing up again. The bottom of the east, that's really, that's really interesting to me. Who makes it? Is it like, can the caps do it again?

Does Pittsburgh have anything left in the tank? Like what, like what happens at the bottom of the east? Doesn't it almost feel like Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa are just the same team at this point? Just miscellaneous young Atlantic rebuild. Like just the Kings of Mid.

of us saying this is the year one of those teams makes the playoffs. Okay, but here's, okay, I'm lower on this. I'm probably like a four out of ten on this, and I'll tell you why. In the Atlantic, Florida, Toronto, Boston, Tampa, we've established those four teams are not going anywhere. So specifically to the Atlantic, who are you knocking off there? You know, the best route for one of those teams, whether it's Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa is to be a wildcard team and maybe there's three coming out of the metro this year. But I mean, you know, the Devils, the Rangers and Carolina probably going to be there. Like we're really talking about, you know, one or two spots for these teams and I'm like, I don't know.

I just, it doesn't, it's not as compelling because I feel like it's such, it's those teams that are good and established are so safe from the other teams that we're talking about that are all lumped together, where it's the Islanders, the Penguins, the Caps, and then Savers, Detroit and Ottawa, like, they're just all kind of clumped together in one. And there's a big discrepancy between those teams and the teams that are legit, that are making it pretty much for sure. And, and I mean, you kind of slipped it in there, but I find that I, I forget this when I'm looking at this, because it's always about, okay, is Washington going to come out? Maybe it's the Islanders. Or, you know, are they going to come out? Are they going to be the team that opens up that.

spot for a Detroit or for a Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, we've all got New Jersey back in. So that's a spot already taken that was not a playoff team last year. So, you know, it's not enough for Washington to drop out. Washington could drop out. And there's still not a spot available. Okay. Here's a supplemental for you. Like, how surprised would you be if the devils miss the playoffs this year? Because I would be shocked if they missed if they miss the playoffs. I just think like Sheldon's track record of coaching skilled players and success in the regular season paired with two veteran goalies, paired with like a revamp blue line now with hopefully Dougie's playing all year and Brett Pesci's there and, you know, those young guys all take a step. I just, I cannot envision a world where the devils do not make the playoffs this season. And if they did, that would be a catastrophic failure.

A hundred percent. Would you have said the same thing last year? Well, I would have said the same thing. thing last year, the Dougie injury hurts and the goalie situation. Like, I think they were just, we knew the goalie situation what it was going into last year. I don't think we, I don't think we thought it was going to be as bad as it was. But I probably, you're right, GV. I would have said the same thing last year.

Devils are for sure a playoff team. And like, say what you will about Sheldon Keith, right? Like the playoff stuff, we don't need to relitigate that. But in Toronto, that dude, if nothing else was really good at coaching teams, to successful regular seasons through injuries on the blue line, which you remember a few years ago when it was like Riley was hurt and Brody was heard and that was the beginning of the end for Jake Muzzen. That still turned out to be a pretty good team. And he's good at coaching teams with mediocre regular season goaltending. Like we like we know that to be true. So I don't know if I

would pick them to win a playoff series like for obvious reasons. But I think man, I would be stunned if they didn't make it because the stuff Sheldon Keefe is good at lines directly up with the most important elements of that team, right? Figuring out the mix with his best players, you know, maybe weathering some injuries and figuring out what happened with goaltending. That's the stuff that guy's good at in the regular season at least. And those are the big questions for them. So here's what interests me about the East.

I think if you go down the list and you count the number of teams that are banking on being a playoff team this year. Not just hoping, but where they have sort of planted their flag that this has got to be the year that we're in, you wind up with a lot more than eight teams. 100%. And that means there are going to be some teams that just miss. And maybe in that Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa zone, you've got some teams where you say, if they're in it right till the end, okay, maybe you take that as a win.

But there are going to be some teams that are going to miss and there's going to be some teams are going to miss by a bunch and it's not going to be acceptable. You know, Ottawa cannot lose another season of this young core. Detroit, I mean, I think Detroit is a team that has to be in. Pittsburgh, they've pushed all the chips and they have to be in. I mean, there's no, is there any scenario where Pittsburgh feels like a success? The islanders, yes. Because the islanders, this is who they are.

This is how good they are. This is how bad they're going to be. It's who they're going to be for the next. next few years. That's just there's no, there's no, hey, we can kind of reshape this or rejig it or tear it down. You cannot do that. That is who you are. And like, you're kind of stuck with who you got now if you're the Islanders. And how good does that make you? Probably a wild card team when it's all said. This all sounds like drama to me. I like this. I'm at a solid eight out of ten on this. I want to see how this shakes out with the teams that are on the come up with the teams that are declining. with all these desperate teams that Sean mentioned. Like, this is, this is like, if it's not at the top for me, it's really, it's really close. This is a nine.

And I don't know if this is, I don't know if this is because I maybe, maybe because I live in work and grew up in Pittsburgh, which is the home of the mediocre, you know, Eastern, Eastern conference team right now, right? But, but I'm fascinated by this. Okay, here's what I'll do for you. I said four out of 10. I'm going to raise it to five out of 10 because that is mid. and we're talking about a lot of mid teams. Yep, it's fair.

Sean, where are you at on this? Six out of ten for me. Six out of ten, my God. More so on who misses than who makes. Okay. Utah, new team in Salt Lake City, pretty good team, added a bunch.

They got better where they needed to. That blue line had been a disaster for years and years. They go out and get Sergachev and John Reno, all of a sudden stuff looks a lot better. But the off-vice product, I think is what we're looking at too here, right? Like, this is, this is interesting. There's, there's a new team.

Where are we at on that? I just think they came out with their concession prices yesterday or the day before. And I got to say, if you are looking to win over a fan base, that's the way you do it. You're going to have people talking about that around that town saying, like, we're going to the games. Everything's fairly priced. They really want us to be there. I just think they're doing a lot of the off-ice stuff really well there.

As far as the on-ice stuff goes, they've found a way to spend a little more money, which is great. And something that that organization, and I'm sure Bill Armstrong, has wanted to do for a long time and weren't able to do in Arizona. Ultimately, like, I don't think I'm watching Utah as far as them pushing for a playoff spot or anything like that. I'm more watching it with a curious eye, like just to how does the arena look? How does the fan interaction look? You know, how do teams kind of feel about going in and out of Utah? What's everyone saying about the buzz around the city? That's my curiosity with this more than, I guess, the on-ice because I think ultimately

they're going to be in that, I don't know, 10th, 9th, 11th kind of spot in the West. Once it's all said and done, if everything kind of plays out the way we think it should. So I'm probably on a, I don't know, I'm a, I'm a six out of ten on this, let's say. Right. I love a new team in sports. I have always, since I was a kid, any time, there was an expansion team or a team moved, you know, the new uniforms, the new arena slash stadium, all of it. But I'm lower on this one only because time has taught me that, like, we learn all that stuff in the first week or two. And then the novelty wears off.

And it's just like, yeah, it's Utah. Similar to what we said about the coyotes in Arizona State, right? Wow. This is going to be crazy. And then after two weeks a game, it was like, okay, that's it. Well, after two weeks, it turned into the lights look kind of weird in there. Yeah, we got to ride golf carts from the, from the visiting room. And there's going to be a bit of that in Utah with the arena not quite, you know, being, being quite right.

I will say that. Yeah. I will say that I am a little bit disappointed because when we first found out Utah was getting a team. And even in the lead up to that, I felt like there could be a little bit of crazy owner vibes coming out of Utah. And I love a good crazy owner. Is it because you saw Ryan Smith going Pat McAfee wearing a backwards baseball cap? That was pretty much exactly it. I thought this guy is going to be the wildest guy in all of Utah.

And he might be. but he seems to have settled in as a more reasonable guy, which is good, very good for the team, but not good for people like me who want to see, you want to see the circus. It's like, it's like this guy, this guy pays his bills. He pays his vendors. How fun of that. We're so, we're so used to a guy just skipping out on hotel bills like a, like a kid on spring break. Speaking of hotel bills, it's funny you bring that up. So I remember when the Islander switched over to the Barclays Center and that was the first year that they, switched over. So teams all of a sudden had to stay in Brooklyn as opposed to out in

NASA. There was that famous Marriott right across the street from the rank. Like everyone has stayed there. This is the thing when a new team comes in. You got to find the new hotel. Everyone's got to find the new restaurants. Like I'm curious about this from a player's point of view. I'll tell you the first time we checked into the hotel that we stayed at in Brooklyn. It was some Marriott. Like Mary, I can't remember what it was or where it was, but it was a Marriott in Brooklyn. And I remember, you know, we had all gone up to our rooms, unpacked, a bunch of guys were down in the lobby for dinner and someone goes, like, it was an awkward silent. Someone goes, man, you work your whole life to get to the NHL, eh? And this is where they put you.

Unbelievable. Like, unbelievably, it was all pissed off about the new hotel we were staying at. So the team, the team services guys around the NHL will have their money cut out for them. What it comes to what hotel are we staying at? And is there any good restaurants? to eat at, which I'm sure there is. That's fun. You got to, I mean, like, you know, Boston's, or Brooklyn's not really Marriott country either. Like, you might have to, you might have to get creative on that one. That'll be interesting.

Yeah. Frank, what's your, what's your number on this? I'll give it a six out of ten. Just, I want to, yeah, I want to see how everything looks around the team. I'm not as concerned with the on-ice product as I am everything around it in the fan experience and how they kind of embrace the team. Love it. We're four storylines in. That means we got to take our first break. We'll be right back. It's time to go through the, well, we're not going to say final six because who knows where we end on this course here.

But we have six more storylines that we want to grade out and hit before we leave you, folks. Next one, the start of the Matt Van Mitzchikov era in Philadelphia, specifically, what's he going to look like with torts? Oh, dude. You have insight here, my friend. Dude, I'm seven and a half out of 10 on this. And you know what? I think Torz is saying all the right things right now. Not going to stifle him. We are starving for a player like him because they are.

Like this is a talented, natural, gifted goal scorer on a team where goal scoring is not so natural. And it doesn't come so easy for the Philadelphia Flyers. And he's young. He's going to make mistakes. But I think Torz knows that coming into this season. And he's going to work with him. on some things, but he's going to have to let him play. And, like, Mitchcoff Mania is running wild already in Philadelphia.

They, the fans are, they are almost as happy as Keith Jones and Danny Breyer were when they picked him up from the airport. That was one of the best pictures I have ever seen. The president and the GM picking up a player, you know how important of a player you have to be for the president and GM to go to the airport and pick you up and carry your sticks for you. Yeah. Like usually, like a guy like me, they would have just said, grab an Uber and send us the

receipt. You know what I mean? Not like not an Uber, not an Uber XL either. Your stick bags going in a civic, my man. Yes, exactly. And, and you know what? Maybe if you're someone a little higher status than me, like you would get like a PR person or or team services.

This guy got the president and the GM. And you know what? Like, as far as the kids, like the kids production. last year he played in Sochi in the KHL. Sochi is notorious for being a bad team in that league. They don't have a lot of money. He had 19 goals in 47 games. That's not an easy league to pump a lot of offense into,

and he was a 19-year-old doing that. I think there's a very realistic world where this kid jumps into the NHL this year and scores, I mean, I don't know if we're going to put a number on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's 25 goals this year playing for. Philly? Like, I could see it. I'm fascinated to see the whole progression between him and torts. Seven and a half out of ten. Is 25 goals a success given the hype and given, you know, this guy, like, on some level it feels like this is like Pavel Burray coming into the league.

Okay, but Baderd had 22 last year. Like, if Badaard had 22 last year in 68 games, let's say Mitch Gough plays 72 to 75 games. Let's just say there's a little spillage of, you know, a couple games where you're banged up and he has 25 goals. It's not a bad rookie year. I just feel like I could see him having 20 goals, 50 points and it feeling

like a letdown just because of the hype, even though you look at it and you go, that's a perfectly, it's not even a perfectly adequate rookie season. That's a very good rookie season. Where do you guys, where do you guys think he's projected? I got the projections here from Don's model.

It's also like the NHLE, like points projection thing based on the KHLL, but where do you guys think he is in terms of goals and assists? Because I got it right in front of me here. I don't know what I just said 23rd. Yeah. Okay. 23rd. I'm going to say, yeah, somewhere between 25, 20 to 25 goals and somewhere between 50 to 55 points.

Wow. Did you guys read the Flyers preview? Is that, is that I'm gleaning here? Is it 20? I don't read hockey previews. Of course not. Why would you? Why would anybody?

I just scan for the top number and then I head right to the comments. All right. Bye, bye. Yeah. Yeah, you're a wing, you're a wings fan, it sounds like. 23 goals, 54 points. That's what the projections are from Michigan. There we go. All right, not bad.

Direct hit. And four benchings from Torteroella. All right. Over under, over under's three and a half on that one. It's available on whatever. I was going to say an actual sports book here, but then I realized that could be taken as fact. And I don't want that to happen.

All right, Frank is at 7.5. I think you argued me up to a 6 on that one. Okay. Yeah, I'll go six as well. All right. We're going to the big boys. We're going to lump these guys together. What can we expect from McDavid and Matthews this year?

Can McDavid put up 160 points? Can Austin hit 70 goals? How high can these dudes fly even relative to last year? So we're tracking history on this one. How interested are we in that? You want me to start on this? I'm going to give you, I think, what is an unpopular opinion on this? I don't know if you will.

I'm low. I'm low. As far as how much I care about these two things happening, I'm probably a two out of ten. Connor McDavid has nothing left to prove to me. Like the guy scored a had a year where he had 64 goals and he had 153 points. I don't care if I ever see him hit 160. The stuff I see him do on the ice is incredible. It's unbelievable.

I'm good with that. You know what I mean? Like the results compared to what I see, I just, it doesn't really matter to me. Austin Matthews just scored 69 goals. The Toronto Maple Leafs lost in the first round again. So I mean. What's one more? It's great.

Yeah, if you score 70, that's really cool. Ultimately, that doesn't, like, that's not going to be what we remember about Austin Matthews's his first year as the captain of the Maple Leafs. The Edmonton Oilers want to win a Stanley Cup. the Leafs want to establish that they can actually do something in the playoffs. Whether McDavid hits 160 or Matthews hits 70, those have no bearing on the real important things actually happening. So that's why I'm like, I'm two out of ten.

I love that. That's, uh, you know what? That's a good case and I'm half with you. I'm with you on Matthews because as I've said, I don't feel like anything that happens in the Leafs regular season matters. Results wise. Process, getting the new system and, you know,

Barouba, changing the culture and all that, maybe, but we're not going to know any of that until we get to the playoffs. So, you know, if Austin Matthews gets,

you know, 60, 70, 75, whatever, I don't, I'm not going to get caught up in that. It would be neat to see him, for example, if he can take a run at 50 and 50,

okay. Then, you know, that, but, you know, that feels even for, for him unlikely.

McDavid is, is interesting to me only because, has it felt like for the last few years like McDavid just is almost toying with the league and almost just choosing how he's going to dominate. Like a couple of years ago, Matthews had 60 goals. Everybody spent the whole summer singing songs about how great 60 goals was and how maybe Austin Matthews is now. Is he now the guy in this league? And it was like Connor McDavid was just like, all right, we're doing 60 goals?

Okay, I'll score 60 goals this year. Bang, bang, bang, he scored 65 or whatever was. And then it was like the next year, it was almost like he sat back and went, all right, I did the goal saying, how about 100 assists? Nobody's done that in 30 years. I think I'll just take a run at that. And now it's like, what is it now? I don't know.

Maybe he wants to win the selfie this year and he'll just go ahead and do that. Maybe he wants to, maybe he's going to show up, you know, the first night and be like, you know what, put me on the blue line. I'm winning the Norris. This guy can do anything he wants. I just want to see what it is that he wants to do this year. Oh, he can't do anything he wants. Ah, okay.

Maybe not. How many points would you have to hit for you to start being like, holy shit? Like, would it need to be 180? Like, at what point are you actually started? At what point are we starting to watch the point total with Connor McDavid again? Because it would happen at some point. It's not 160 for me. But I feel like if he was 164, two points a game, average two points a game.

And now we're into, because that is, now we're into 1980s stuff. But the thing is with that, like, we're not saying any. different that we're not already saying about McDavid. It's true. It doesn't change how we feel about him. It's undisputed best player in the world. No one has ever done what this guy can do on skates. He's the most evolved player of all time, trademark Steve Dryden, the quiz master.

I was just about to say, I've heard that one before. It's such a great way to describe him from Dryden. That's like, there's just, it would be amazing to see and we'll talk about it. You guys will write about it, but we won't, like, there's not. nothing different about the narrative of Connor McDavid if he does it. He's still the best. Then let me throw this out there because we've seen in the last couple of years, Ryan Nugent Hopkins getting 100 points,

not really playing with Connor McDavid, but mainly because he's, McDavid sucks up all the defensive energy. We saw Zach Heiman last year. Which random Euler has an insane year this year because of Connor McDavid? This is like, this is three DGB posts wrapped into one. Like, we're 100% going to get, going to see this premise revisited here. My initial thought is Jeff Skinner just because he's new there and he's come from the Buffalo

kind of system where so many guys had the life sucked out of them there and then went on to have success elsewhere. Like, it feels like Jeff Skinner would be next in line for that. I can't wait till he has 45 goals. 110 points and then signed somewhere next year for 10 million a year and then turned that they're like, oh, wait, this is just Jeff Skinner. Okay. Victor Arvinson's going to stay healthy for the first time of his career and score 41 goals or

something. Like, we're like, I'm, I'm ready for it. Sean, what's your, what's your number on this, though? Yeah, I did. Milestone watch or whatever. I was, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm three on that. Okay. I don't know how I was the highest on this.

I'll go, I'll give it a four, but. Who cares? Panthers Cup defense. I just wrote their season preview. I think that's going to drop in a couple days here. They are top five in the point projections, I think. Are we more interested in this cup defense or less interested than we typically are when it comes to this? I'm not sure where I'm landed.

I'm going to say I'm more interested in this because I feel like every time we see a team have success and win a Stanley Cup, there's like a summit on how that team played. and how that team was built. You know, when Vegas won, we had to talk about all the, the heavy defensemen and the big, strong centermen that they had. When Tampa won,

it was all about the goal tending. And although the skill was there, and, you know, when Colorado won speed, skill kills you, like, what's the summit as far as the Florida Panthers?

Like, what is the poppy cat that were taken from the Panthers? I thought about this, because I had to, I had to think about this when we were doing the, the preview shit. it's like have really good players and then have really effective players signed for cheap. And if you can do that, like, congratulations.

That's not the most repeatable thing. You know what is, in theory, repeatable is the Panthers were built incredibly aggressively in terms of trades and free agents, which we are told is not the way the NHL works. It's a draft and developed league. And all I can do as a GM, I got to finish last for three years, draft a bunch of guys, and then you've got to give me years and years of patience to put it all together. And the Panthers came along. We're like, no, I mean, oh, Jonathan Hubertow, you just had 110 points. Awesome. You're traded because we think there's somebody even better out there. And, you know,

remember that Matthew, you know, obviously Matthew Kuch had a ton of control on his own destiny, and I'm not saying any team in the league could have gotten, got him. But do you remember those rumors around like, oh, was St. Louis, would they give up Jordan Kairu? I don't know. That might be too steep. And it was like the Panthers just muscled their way to the front of the line and like slammed their card down on the table and said, we'll take it. Name your price. You, you know, we want it. That would have been cool to see teams go like, or especially like team owners go, how come we're not the most aggressive team going out for that stuff? But I don't think it is. Instead, it's going to be like have a veteran goalie who gets hot. I'm less,

I'm obviously extraordinarily interested in who wins a cup. That's the, point of every year. But as far as the Panthers, I'm a three out of ten because I'm sick of hearing about taxes. Okay, fair enough. I am, I'm a seven out of ten because this would be the third, like if they were to go all the way, like three years in a row going to the Stanley Cup final, A, can they do that? What are you trying to recreate with this team? Because not everyone can find a Barkoff. Not everyone can find guys like Matthew Kach and Sam Bennett. Um, you know, like not everyone can get Sam Reinhart to take a significant discount to stay with that team. Um, not everyone has a waiver wire defenseman turn into the one of the best shutdown defensemen in the NHL and Gus Foresling.

So like there's just, I don't think there's a lot you can copy with the Panthers. Um, and so I'm not sure there's that much other teams can do. But, um, you know, to, to see if they can, if they have the gas to kind of go for it again. I think that'll be interesting. and if they don't, it kind of leaves things wide open as far as who the, I don't know, I guess Edmonton for sure, but in the east, things seem like they're more wide open. No team has won back-to-back cups after losing in a cup finals since the Oilers did it after they lost the Islanders in 1983. So like they would be playing a wild amount of hockey. That's pretty interesting to me.

I'm in between you guys. Sean's at a 3, Frankie's at a 7. I'm at a 5. That's, you know, middle table. And I think that's reasonable. We're going to be watching Nashville and Tampa and treating them, I think, as a duo in a lot of ways this season because of how length they are

because of the Stamcoast stuff. St.m Coast versus Gensel, Tampa versus Nashville. So, like, is that something you guys are, you guys are tracking? Because I, even if it's just by points, I'm interested in seeing how Genssel replaces Samkos on the power play. And I'm interested in how Stamcoast looks on a team that has so much, you know, where he's not going to be playing regular minutes on a line with, on a line with point on line with Cochereov and all that stuff.

So it is interesting to me. I'm just not sure how far. Yeah. I'm probably like a four and a half out of 10 on this, because I, I agree the, the Tampa power play is going to look different. Like there was always that threat of, does Kutrov take the one-timer? Does he zip it across to Stamcoast for the one-timer? It's going to be different with Gensel now.

And then in Nashville, you know, it's a lot of right-handed shots. It's a lot of winger. Who's getting those guys the puck so they could get those shots off? You know, like it's one thing to have trigger, man, but you got to have someone kind of putting it in the wheelhous with them. So, yeah, I'm interested for sure. Ultimately, I think both of these guys will have success. in their new homes.

Who has more success? Probably would lean towards Gensel. But I think even at that, like, it's not, I don't think Gensel like blows Stamco's production away this year. Like I could still see it being very close between the two guys. This gets interesting if Nashville and Stamcoast are having success in Tampa isn't, which I don't think is an impossible scenario to envision.

Because then all the second guessing kicks in. But until then, I'd go four and a 10. Yeah, that's where I'm at too. I think at the end of June or the beginning of July, I'd have been like, all right, I'm all in on this. I feel like it's lost some roster over the last little bit. But I don't know if we're just tired of it or what. But yeah, that's a little bit down the list for me.

I'm also kind of, I'm worried about Stamco's as a five-on-five player. Like, I think his numbers last year there were, a major step back territory from the season before. And now, like, Tommy Novak is a good player, but is he ready to center Stamcoast and Marcha or whatever? I don't know. It's going to be fun, but I don't know if it's going to be fun for the ways everybody thinks.

DGB, we had to fill out a survey on the site that we're going to, someone's going to write about eventually, uh, trying to, who's going to win the awards, who's going to win divisions, blah, blah. One of the questions was which coach gets fired first. And I think the two of us had the same reaction from looking at this.

I can't find one. I feel like the fact that we're starting the season with a lot of, with a relatively high amount of job security across the board is kind of fascinating to me. Because somebody will get fired. It always happens. It's just a matter of, it feels like it's a matter of who and I can't find any slam dunk candidate here on October 2nd. Yeah, usually because it's, it's a matter of who.

combination of two things, right? Usually it's high expectations on a team that maybe isn't going to meet them. And then also you look at a guy who's been there a few years. And that's the tricky part because half this league has a coach who started in the last year and a half, two years. And when you guys got fired the last couple years. Yeah, those guys should be safe, right? I mean, they're not going to, you're not going to fire somebody who has only been on the job for a year unless it's very unusual circumstances. So that's what complicated. it for me. Can I throw out a crazy one? Sure. John Cooper. The longest serving coach in the NHL, I think the best coach in the NHL. Let's look at the situation here. Tampa, he's been there forever. Tampa is an aging team. We have seen teams like this when the window closes, it slam shut.

We just saw the GM stick his neck out on a big, big off season. So, I mean, you wouldn't think there's going to be a lot of patience if they're around them, you know, missing the playoffs, Mark. And normally you'd sit there and go, yes, great, wonderful, but the guy's got, you know, he's won cups for you. There's going to be loyalty. They just let Stephen Stamco's walk. There's no loyalty in Tampa, very clearly. So is it possible they get off to a bad, so I'm not talking a week or two, but we're a month and a half into the season and they're seven points out of a playoff spot that.

They do the unthinkable, just like letting Stephen Stamcoast walk out the door was unthinkable for a little while. Well, okay. Every coach gets fired at some point. Like literally every coach has gotten fired at some point in their careers. You know, the greatest coaches of all time. John Cooper is going to be in that conversation. You never want to talk about guys getting fired because that's their job, that's their income, their families, all that kind of stuff. Like all that kind of stuff gets affected.

But with Tampa Bay, if you're thinking about a team that does business maybe in a more cutthroat fashion, still has expectations to win and contend, they would check off those boxes. I think it would have to go so bad for Tampa for John Cooper to be fired this year, especially during the season. It would have to be a complete runaway train where it's like this is the only thing we can possibly think of in this moment to try and salvage some kind of season here. I don't think that happens, but if that were to happen, that would have to be on the table.

But yeah, you know what? I think all the teams that had the expectations, you know, for the last few years that had a coach maybe kicking around, those coaches all got moved, they're all moved on now. So they're all on these coaches. The turnover happened.

Six coaches in the league who have been on the job more than two years. Martin Saint-Louis is the six longest-tenured current head coach, and he got hired yesterday. And he wouldn't be going anywhere this year either because there's still not high expectations on that team. So I think, you know, the only thing we can think of maybe for a coach is if there's, you know, tension behind the scenes, you know, and with him and the GM and we wouldn't know that that is really happening, maybe that's something. Maybe it's a young team somewhere else that, like, isn't taking a step forward or maybe they

come to the realization like this is not the coach that they actually need for these players. But I just, it's hard because we kind of have this preconceived notion on what every team is and how it's going to go for them. Who are we thinking is going to be an unmitigated disaster? I can't, I can't think of a team that you would, you would already, maybe L.A., but L.A. has a brand new head coach and Jim Hiller, so you're not firing him right away. The one that came to mind for me was Drew Bannister and St. Louis in terms of the new guys that might be in trouble out of the gate just because Doug Armstrong keeps saying like yeah like he's basically

and yeah I got convinced to hire him like like it turned out he was the best guy like I was like he sounds half surprised that the dude got the job in the first place and he's like yeah he deserves a he deserves a shot so it's not it's not it's not in it's not unimaginable to me for that to be some kind of huge mess and Armstrong just pulls the plug because there's there's there's there's some you know whatever they're in a weird in a weird phase of their organizational uh you know status as well. But, man, I don't know. I have to squint to see any of these, which is, which is interesting on its own. So Frankie gives it a six. I'll give it a, I'll get a, I'll get a six point five. Sean. Let's go seven. You got two more. We're going to hit these. We're going to

hit these really quick. What can we expect from the Vancouver Canucks? I think they surprised a bunch of people last year. They're not going to have the luxury this season. Interesting, interesting off season where they lost some stuff, but also signed guys like Heronic long term and took care of some business for the peril moving forward. I don't know. I'm fascinated in what comes next for them. I am too.

I'm higher on this. I'm like a seven and a half out of 10 when it comes to Vancouver because everything just went well for them. When the shooting percentage was low, the save percentage was high and vice versa for them last year. And just they really capitalized on a lot of things. if that doesn't all go as planned or the same way this year, like if it doesn't go perfectly,

how much do they drop and not having Thatcher Demko, you know, for, I don't know, who knows when, we'll get him back and how does he deal with that? Like, it's going to be, we're going to really get to see how much Rick Tocke gets out of this team this year. And I, like, he is a unbelievable coach. All the stuff he says, like I really agree with as a former player and watching his team play and hearing what he says.

But I think it's going to be fascinating because two seasons in a row, it can't go perfect for you. And now you have injuries at play as well. So it's going to be, it's going to take some kind of step back. I'm just not sure how significant of a step back. Yeah, I think somewhere in between what they did last year

and what we expected them last year, which still gets them into the playoffs in the Pacific. I thought they were the most interesting team in the league last year, this year a step down, but six out of ten for me. What the hell is going to go on with a Colorado Avalanche? They've got all this cap money technically on the shelf right now with Natushkin and Landis Scott got out of the lineup. Those are crucial players that they don't have.

We saw, you know, McCar injured for a lot, for a chunk of last season. So it does feel like a little bit of a bounce back opportunity for them. I feel like there's just. You know, you still got the four beasts at the top of the lineup, but, man, there's a lot of, there's a lot of questions in the middle for them right now. Okay, you, you were, you were bringing this up. I, like, I still see Colorado as a very, very good team, certainly a Stanley Cup contender, you know, and you're right. It's, it's the guys at the top that really dragged the team along. And that was what was doing it for them for the majority of last year, where it was like, that team was going as far as McKinnon and Ranting in, we're going to take them. And they ended up getting some help, ultimately, which helped them in the playoffs. But I think for Colorado, I don't worry about them.

I think they're going to be there. They're going to be a good team. So I'm lower on this. I'm like a three out of ten. I'm going to watch McKinnon and Rantanin and McCar do their thing because they're unbelievable. But I don't think there's a part of me that really worries about what this team can be, even if Landisg is not playing, which I think in my head I've accounted for him not playing. I'm not sure if you guys would agree with that.

So there's still like a wake-me-up and, you know, March kind of team. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. The one thing I would say there is Miko Renton in UFA at the end of the year. Mm-hmm.

Not a name that has come up very often when you're talking about next year's free agents and extensions and all of that will be interesting to see if they can fit him in and at what number. But I'm, Colorado is going to be good. They're going to be there at the top of the central at the end of the year. Put a number on it, please. Three out of ten. Three out of ten. All right. This is all very, very scientific.

Our top ten storylines in order before we let Frankie get the hell out of here. Swamen in Chesterkin, you know, goalie drama in Boston, I guess, to a lesser extent, New York. What happens with the Canucks is number two. Ovescan goal chase somewhat surprisingly. Number three. East Playoff Derby number four. who gets fired first and torts and mishkova tied right behind them panthers cup defense stamp coast genssel what happens with the aves and uh coming in 10th we don't care about

personal production for connor mcgated and awesome matthias that's that's that's pulling up there at 9th love it's settled that's settled i'm glad i'm glad we took care of this really important And we will have a great season watching it all play out. Some of it. And if John Cooper gets fired, I want credit for breaking the story. How about this? If John Cooper gets fired, you'll be the first person and possibly the only one that gets to do a victory lab. Let's go.

I'm excited. Frank, you will talk you next week, brother. See you, boys. All right, Frank's gone. We're back. Sean, what have you learned this week? What have we learned, Sean? I learned the same thing that everyone else has learned, which is the pre-year.

season is too long. Too many guys are getting hurt. This is stupid. The hockey is bad. I'm not enjoying any of it. And we desperately need to significantly reduce the number of games. Because I see no positives here other than you can force season ticket holders to buy tickets to something they don't want to go to. I think the penguins are going to play seven preseason games until they had an air quote's mechanical issue with their plane and got delayed into try seven. We're talking about an NHL team seven or eight There's no way that you need that much Especially considering every year I get suckered in every year I sit down team previews Oh roster battles I can't wait

This is going to be And it's always like Every team we're kind of locked in Other than fourth line left wing There's two guys that are battling it out Oh great yeah let's take three weeks to do that That's fascinating While we just hold our breath and hope

that any of the actually important players don't get hurt, which they have been. We've been seen it this week. They've been, you know, we've had quite a few guys leave. And some of those guys are leaving games, precautionary reasons.

But that just indicates even more, like how useless this is. Like, oh, you got a, all right, you're out. We're 10 minutes into the game. Our best player can just go back to the room because he got, you know, he got a little bruise. Because why,

why would you possibly? You can just call, you can just bring up the Ottawa senators. Like that's, that was, the senators lost a bunch of guys last night for the game. We don't know yet if, uh, if any of those are significant in any way. But yeah, it's, it's, I get that there are certainly some teams where maybe there's a new coach or new system and you're trying to, you know, get some things worked out. But this is, this is too much. And I really wonder if we eventually get to a situation like we see in the NFL these. days where there are literally teams that just do not play their star players in the preseason

in the NFL. Why would you? You practice, you work on your stuff, but they do not play the games. And when the games start counting the first week of September, that's the first time you see these guys on the field. And there's times where that bites NFL teams in the ass. There have been teams. It happened with the Carolina Panthers this year.

They had a new coach, an inexperienced QB, who was trying to learn a new offense. Bryce Young played two series or whatever it was and he comes in and stinks off the joint. Like, would it, would it have been better for Bryce Young if he played, if he played a little bit more in the preseason? Like, yeah, sure. But the exception proves the rule. Like, like 99 times out of 100, there's, there's just no need for this. Would it have been nice for Patrick Lainey to have some time with new line mates and, you know, get acquainted? Yeah, absolutely.

But at the same time, there's the, well, not quite the worst case because it turned out not to be. you know, the ACL that we all thought it was, but this is too much. And I don't know, like, I've never met a hockey fan. And I've met some fans with some weird opinions that they share with me. I've never met someone. Unsolicited and very loudly. Yeah, I am the weird idea guy. So I, and I'm not complaining.

Nobody has ever sent me something and been like, here's how we can make the preseason longer. 11. And the only thing that we're clearly. building towards here and I'll give the NHL credit in their evil genius way. They are letting this simmer and letting everyone's hatred for the preseason build up to the point where they are going to eventually take away four preseason games, add two regular season games, which nobody would be in favor of. Nobody wants a regular season longer, but we will treat that as a victory because we're

so sick of the preseason that we'll let them slip in two extra games on the end of the real thing. NFL model, baby. They're learning from the best on that one. What I learned was at the NHL did the right thing as far as the Columbus Blue Jackets were concerned. Yesterday, we found out that Columbus isn't going to be required to reach the league salary floor by the time rosters are set next week. I'm surprised it took that long to some extent. I don't know, don't know how tough of a decision that was, but all as well that ends well. And they did right by one of their member organizations in a truly, almost unimaginably tragic, difficult. difficult situation.

They did and also credit here to the NHLPA. Absolutely. They had to sign off on this. And they did. And yes, this is the sort of thing that you look at and you say, this is completely obvious. This was the easiest decision you could possibly make.

And yet, very often this league and its players, when you put them down at a table together, cannot make easy decisions together. So I think it was not only the right thing to do, but it is a small but non-zero good omen for the future, the CBA coming up relatively shortly here, that these guys were able to just sit down, make a quick phone call, you would assume it was quick. The PA didn't turn around and go, yeah, well, okay, but you got to do something for us,

or Gary Bettman didn't try to, like, you know, shoehorn in some other little pet peeve and say, we're going to do this at the same time and turned it into a fight. They just sat down, did the right thing, got it done, got it out of. of the way. That's how it should work. It's usually not how it works in the NHL. So credit to them for doing the easy thing easily for once. Yeah, important decisions can be simple. And I think we learned that over the last couple days. All right, it's time to go. I think we're done here. I'm glad we took a really in-depth look at the storylines face in the league this season. And to be clear, if we didn't mention like your favorite team, it means we don't care. It means

We don't care, and they're not important. And we probably won't even talk about them on the show at all year long. Not once. So sorry to the Montreal Canadiens and all those other teams that we didn't mention. You were banned from the show for the next seven months. Thank you, Sean McIndo. Thank you, Frankie Crowder, wherever you are. And thank you for listening to The Athletic Hockey Show.

If you're a Spotify listener, you can leave comments on our episodes now. It's a big deal. It's years in the making. tomorrow it's me and Haley in McIndoo you're back we get two straight days

of McHandu on the athletic hockey show Can you imagine Is it doing the draft tomorrow? It's tomorrow I hope it goes well for me I I

I have to wait and see it because we are recording these chronologically obviously we would never do something as crazy is recording I really hope like a show

I'm really banking on that it's Haley it's me it's Sean and Max we're drafting starting lineups. Right winger, left winger, center, 2D, one goalie. We're going to track it over the course of the season. Which day of the week emerged victorious? Just going to have to wait and see. Until then, I'll talk you next week.