The Athletic Hockey Show - Capitals, Wild and Kraken on the playoff bubble, Meier leads trade deadline targets, Auston Matthews next contract and will anyone ever catch Gretzky's all time scoring record?

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

As the unofficial second half begins, Rob, Jesse and Mike welcome Mike Rupp from NHL Network to discuss the push for the playoffs, the trade deadline, changing the playoff and overtime format and hear what Rupper thinks about Jacob Trouba having to fight, after throwing big time legal hits and what Auston Matthews might make in his next contract.The guys also touch on Bo Horvat's new contract with the New York Islanders, what to do with the NHL All-Star game, what US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh brings to the table when he takes over as the NHL players association Executive Director and on the heels of Lebron James setting the NBA's all-time scoring record, will anyone, ever catch Wayne Gretzky's NHL point record?Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at http://LinkedIn.com/nhlshowGet a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase at http://athleticgreens.com/NHLTry Peloton risk-free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at http://onepeloton.ca/home-trial Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stick around to the end of today's episode to hear the trailer of Between the Lines, the Athletic's newest narrative podcast documenting the intersection of race and football. Coming to the Athletic Football Show feed on February 14th. This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable edition for the unofficial second half of the 2022, 2023 season. I am Rob Piesel from CBC Sports and the boys are back in town.

Mike Russo and Jesse Granger back from sunny Florida, all tanned up and relaxed and looking good. How are you, boys? I'm doing well. How are you doing, Jesse? Haven't seen you in a while? Pretty good, yeah. Florida was sunny for the first half of the trip.

The second half, it was a hurricane. But they had to cancel the fan fest on the beach. It was pretty crazy, but had a great time down there. Just wait till you cover it next year's All-Star game in Toronto and you're going to see what fun weather for an All-Star weekend is all about. But great work, guys. I was following your stuff. And we're going to get to all that in a little bit. Should mention Mike Rupp, former NHLer, Stanley Cup champion and now studio analyst for the NHL Network.

He's going to be joining us in the second half the show. He's always a blast, great storyteller. And in my opinion, one of the best, I don't want to call him a troll, but he comes back at people on Twitter. He's definitely one last. He's made it known that he's won more Stanley Cups than the Toronto Maple Leafs in the last 56 years. And your ace is in my book if you do that. Like that's just the best way to do it. I almost have.

I mean, winning a Stanley Cup, that's what you earned it, right? You earn a right to be able to flash that ring at any point. But before we get through Ruppert, guys, let's just talk. I'll start a weekend. You both were there. Before we get to maybe some of the things Gary Bettman and Bill Daly said in their presser, just your overall thoughts on the Florida Panthers hosting this thing, the atmosphere, the skills competition, the game, everything, just your overall thoughts.

Jesse will start you. Yeah, I mean, the on-ice stuff was not great, especially the skills night. It was very strange and awkward. And while I kind of want to give the NHL credit for trying new things, I also think that the new things they tried were kind of bad. But the off-eye stuff, which is like why I was down there to talk to the players, amazing. The whole weekend was great. The players were all, they're just in such a different mood. It's just such a different vibe at All-Star weekend. You talk to players and you think they're literally

different people than the ones you talk to like in a locker room after a game. So I, for those purposes, it was great. I thought the attendance was good. I was just, I've only been at one other All-Star game and it was last year's in Vegas. And the skills competition, I was surprised that it wasn't completely sold out, but I guess that's not irregular. And I think, I think, thought the building was pretty full for the skills competition and the crowd was good. But the crowd's not going to be super intuitive if the on-ice stuff isn't great. The All-Star game was much better to the NHL's credit. The All-Star game was more fun.

But yeah, the Friday skills was worse in person than it was on TV. And I don't think anybody on TV that did. Yeah, you know, yeah, you don't want to be the crotchety old guy that like, you know, this is boring and blah, blah, because you want to try to remember that this is for the kids. and the fans. And, you know, I've heard from a lot of dads and moms out there that said that their kids loved it. And that is what it's all about. It's all about, you know, making the sponsors happy as well. And that's why it's three hours and that's why it's stretched out. And that's why there's mentions. And that's why it's never going away. The building was full. You know, the one thing I'll tell you about Florida Live Arena is that they've built all these different clubs

in every nook and cranny of that place. And when it, and the problem with the skills competition is it really had trouble keeping everybody's attention. So everybody left their seats and essentially went to those clubs and were all around the arena. The merch areas of the arena was, I mean, you know, the lines were astronomical. And so, you know, that's the one thing is that on TV, and this happens a lot even just with regular season Florida Panthers when people want to make fun of their attendance. Fans generally are actually in the building. There's just, you know, unfortunately, and we've seen it in places like Toronto too, where it just looks like fans when they go to the clubs aren't there, but they really are.

They're just, you know, unfortunately where the cameras are set up, it makes it look emptier than it is. I don't know what the league could do to try to make the skills competition better. You know, I don't, it doesn't seem like there's,

you know, monetary values that are going to change the way that these guys try and things like that. Unless you go back just to the nitty gritty of just the great, you know, sort of skills things that we watched years ago. But again,

this is a made-for-TV event. They're trying to fill three hours. They need to do, they've trying to tailor every one of the, the game, to the market that they're in. So they do all these things away that they pre-tape. And then when they pre-taped, there's all this filler stuff going on the arena.

And the other thing is that they decided this year to have like the semifinals early, have all these different changeovers in the finals late. And it just made for a lot of dead time. And so I don't know what you could do to make it better because you've got certain obligations to essentially generate revenue. But it was that, I mean, even all the players even said after how long it felt and how long it was. Yeah, the way you do it, because you can't pay them money because they're already not making

a bunch of money off this weekend, so you can't just throw millions of dollars at them. I set it in Florida. Later curfews for the winners. If you finish top three, you get to stay out this late. If you win the event, you get to stay out that late. If you finish last, you go straight from the rink back to your hotel. Wow, that's something other than cash that they actually, you know, would love this. I have two things.

One, I agree with Jesse. I kind of applaud them for trying these things. and I agree with Russo that it's for the kids. For me, though, even as a kid, I liked it when they at least tried a little bit. And by that, I mean, a breakaway competition, I remember seeing Gretzky on one team and Lemieux on the other. And as a kid, I'm like, who's going to score? Who's better?

You know, as opposed to, and I know, I'm the crotchety old man here now, Russo. Seeing Ovechkin's sun on the ice, okay, yay. I don't know. It just, to me, I'd just like to see, I'd like to finish the competition and say, this guy's the fastest skater. This guy's got the hardest shot. This guy's the most accurate shooter. When I was a kid, would Ray Bork repeat again as the most accurate shooter?

Like, those are the things to me that I enjoyed. But again, I applauded for trying. You mentioned monetary risk. So the one thing I wanted to ask you guys, and I'm really going to be the guy who I think people will at me on Twitter on this one. And I remember when they first introduced the million dollar prize for the All Star game a few years back. And I remember thinking, well, they're just going to donate that to charity, right?

Like that's going to be some sort of, you know, oh, we want, okay, this goes to your favorite charity. And they're not. And I felt like even on the broadcast, it was brought up a lot by players and coach. Hey, there's a lot of money at stake, a lot of money at stake. And am I the only one who thinks hearing these multi, multi-millionaires need that million dollars to motivate themselves in the All-Star game? A little bit annoying. Am I the only one? Am I on an island here?

Well, we weren't listening to the broadcast, so we didn't hear it. But you've listened to broadcast in the past, right? Like, when you, players would say, like, wow, there's some money at stake here. I don't know. They just kind of rub me the wrong way when people with $40, $50 million contracts are telling me there's a lot of money at stake for probably just what paid for their weekend. Yeah. Someone asked Andre Vasselowski what he's going to do with his share of it. And he just laughed and was like, I have no idea.

Like, I don't have these grand plans for the money. So that was like. And it's not a million each. It's divided by the number of guys on the team. You know, after taxes, that's not a lot of money, Rob. No, I'm just kidding. He'll probably buy another couple palm trees to put in his front yard and this palatial estate in Tampa.

I mean, look, I don't know what, I mean, this has been the grand old story with every skills competition ever in any professional sport is getting guys to try. You know, the second game I thought was really good, you know, and that was because, you know, you had the Kachuk brothers and you had all these different storylines. I was really refreshed by watching a guy like Dylan Larkin show up there and and work his butt off and things like that. But it is.

It's tough to get these guys to do it. I know that people roll their eyes at this, but nobody wants to get hurt in these type of events. I know that people, again, roll their eyes at getting hurt in skills competitions and things like this. I covered a Florida Panthers skills competition once where the Panthers were a legit contender,

and Trevor Kidd tore out his shoulder in a skills competition and missed the rest of the season. I mean, you know, it absolutely destroyed the Panther season that year. You know, this stuff really is genuine. And, you know, Kevin Fiala was even talking about, you know, Kevin's a guy that broke his femur once crashing into the endboards in Nashville. And then he's in the, he, you know, I don't know if everybody saw my Crowe Capricev Kevin Fiala story, but there was a lot of horse trading going on that day where both them were not going to take part in the fastest skater competition because of fear of injuries and one being Caprice that had an agging injury.

Then finally, on the bus down there, they decided right, they'll both do it. but there was only room for one, so Fiala did it. And then Fiala goes right after Cal McCar and watches him crash into the endboards. You know, so like, I mean, I know that I'm making one instance into a magnifying thing, but it's just to get these guys to go full steam in these type of events, I just think is really, really hard. I think the other thing is, you know, what the league sometimes do is they come up with these great ideas.

And then I think the players then have to then, you know, go all out. And it's partially on them as well. The perfect example for that is the goalie tandem one because when they were coming down on the two on O's, three on O's on the goalies, like I understand why the people who came up with that idea thought it was going to be great because think about the best saves in the NHL, the ones that make everyone stand up, oh my God, what a save. It's the two on O, the goalie slides across, makes this spectacular save. And in your mind, that's what's going to happen. But then you get there and it's like, oh, the goalie's just sitting on the goal line and he like kind of tried.

to get over. And the reason is exactly what Michael just said. The goalie's not going to tear his groin trying to get over in an all-star game. You're never going to get the goalie to do that. So it's like the people coming up with the ideas, I totally understand why this seems like it's going to be great. Yeah. Then you see it happen on the ice and you're like, wow, this is terrible. Like this isn't fun at all to watch. You know what they've got to do? What would be good drama is get rid of the hockey. Just put them on a golf course. Let them do their normal betting that they do on a golf course. we'll see major drama there. Put them on a card table,

let them do their normal betting that we see them do on planes and things like that. Just get rid of the actual hockey and the skills competitions for the NHL would be outstanding. I don't know. Let these guys bet.

I just expect the competitive nature to come out. The competitive nature, unfortunately with all pro athletes, competitive nature a lot of times have to do with side wagers and that needs to, they need to almost promote it. Yeah.

Well, you're kidding. Promoting gambling in sports. We haven't seen any of that over the last. especially in this league. Another big thing on All-Star weekend happens every year. Gary Bettman holds his presser alongside John Daly. He hit on a number of topics, guys. Pride night, you know, some of the, what we've talked about many times,

players not wanting to take part, the send sale, the ratings. Tell me the one thing that really jumped out to you from the Gary Bettman press conference. Rousseau. Well, I thought it was interesting that 15 groups are trying to buy the Ottawa senators. And Chris Johnson has since reported. that the sale price of the Sensor is $800 million, which is for a team that was originally brought in there at 92, I think, Melnick paid. Unbelievable return of investment.

If I was any NHL owner, I'd think about selling right now, if the SENS are going for $800. You know, the other thing for me, because I'm in the States, and I don't know how much you guys deal with this up north, but the regional network thing is a big, big issue down here. One, you know, it is hard for fans to find it. if you, you know, there's cost cutting everywhere. People have gotten rid of cable and it's, it's very hard to watch a bunch of teams in this league. And right now, Sinclair looks like they're going to file for bankruptcy, although Bill Daley sounded like that is not a guarantee. But, you know, this is a huge, huge issue for a lot of NHL teams that depend on rights fees and things like that to, to, you know, go into their pockets.

My biggest takeaway was Gary Bettman's a diehard athletic subscriber. He mentioned it. He mentioned it. Yeah, yeah. He was asked about changing the playoffs, and he immediately directed to our poll of the players that they voted they don't want a play in round, which kind of danced around the question, which Gary has a way of doing. Because we don't want a play in round. We want it to go back to one versus eight. Not just we, the people on this podcast, I'm assuming we all agree, because every logical person does. Sydney Crosby, Connor McDavid, they all said this weekend they want it to go back to one versus eight. It makes the regular season more. important getting that one seed. You're not going to play against the second best team in the league because they're in your division. And Gary kind of like, it was interesting that he was like, everything fits into everything. And you have to change the whole schedule if you're going to do that.

It's like, yeah, but you do the schedule every year anyway. Like, I don't understand why you can't just do the schedule different next year if it can make for better playoffs. I was very confused by his answer on how why you can't make it one versus A and it's very complicated. And none of us understand why you can't do it. They were literally just doing it a few years ago. So, yeah, that was my biggest takeaway. He's an athletic subscriber and he hates the 1 versus 8. Well, we'll find out what Mike Rob thinks of the 1 versus 8 and a whole lot more after the break, because a lot of rule changes were brought up as well. And I'm curious to get his take on that. This is the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday, a roundtable edition. Mike Rupp coming up.

So don't go anywhere. All right, boys, the last time we had our next guest on, I'm pretty sure I started the interview talking about how good he was on Twitter. And I'm a big fan of streak, so I'm going to do it again because this really made me laugh out loud. The NHL announces that next year's All-Star game is going to be in Toronto. And our next guest said, what a perfect way to celebrate AM 34 as his farewell tour comes to a close. And one guy on Twitter said, you know, something about, oh, you were never good enough to be a leaf. And all Mike Rupp did was screen grabbed his own bio and circled Stanley Cup champ. And I literally cackled on my couch. I wish I had that checkmate card that I could use at any point.

But he does. Mike Grubb joining us again on the athletic hockey show. How are you, Mike? I'm good, guys. How are you guys doing? How often do you pull out the I want a Stanley Cup card? Because I would, I'd do it to get to the front of the line at Starbucks. I'd tell you, I'd use it every day. I'm honestly, I don't. I don't really, but I thought it was kind of comical as a Leafs fan. And I feel like, excuse me, Leifes Nation, very rabid fan base. We know this, but they also like kind of live in a bubble where I'm like, wait a second. I wasn't good enough to play for the Leaps.

Like, I mean, I was part of a team that won a cup. So, yeah, I don't pull that out often. I don't want to be that guy, but I feel like I was just, I was in a little bit of a mood and wanted to kind of get into it. So that's, that's kind of my response. You won more, as I said on the open, you won more Stanley Cups than the Leafs have in the last 56 years. So there you go. I didn't go there.

I didn't go there. Yeah. My best was the apology you made where you, you know, it's like this heartfelt apology because you didn't point out that William Naylander will also be on his going away tour. And that made Least Nation just to explode even more. I mean, it's just like absolutely fanning the flames. Yeah, I know. The funny thing is it's like, first off, I believe those things that I put out there.

Obviously, it's kind of tongue and cheek. I know that I'm prodding something here. and, you know, I know that this Leafs fan base, again, they're, they're great, but they're also, they're also nuts, man. And it's funny because all the responses are like, oh, this is, this is just to get clicks. This is just to, you know, he's just trying to do this. And really it's not. I just want to kind of stir it up a little bit. But all these people are saying, you know, he's only doing this because it's everything revolves around the Leafs. That's what people want to do on social media is, kind of come down on a leaf so they can get more likes and looks and whatever.

And I'm like, meanwhile, this thing is going over, you know, three million views. And I'm like, what you guys are doing? If you believe that I'm doing that, then why are you responding to me, you know? So it's, whatever. It's fun. But, hey, I do believe that this is kind of the last dance here for this group in Toronto. They've got some tough spots that they're in. So, you know, and I kind of feel like no matter what happens,

this spring with the Leafs, this is the last dance. Because if they win and they go to the Eastern Conference Finals or a Stanley Cup final or even if they win the Cup, I think that's going to price out some guys on this roster. So this team will not be together. And if they lose, this is the last dance because this is the last time you're going to kick that can or kick the tires with this group. So either way, I don't see this team being back and look in any way the way they look right now. you think Austin Matthews is going to be a free agent?

And if so, how much fun is that going to be? Not where he's going to land, but just the actual process of it. That would be the biggest, like, buzz in like NHL history, right? I mean, considering the age of social media and a player that good being a free agent. Yeah, I mean, I don't actually know what, you know, I don't know Austin. I think that because earlier in the air, I think this is kind of how I got on to, Listen, if I knew that Leaves Nation was this fun to get into it with, I would have, I would have, listen, man, I would have facewashed and tried to hit Phil Kessel or, you know, I tried to fight the Fenneple. I had no idea it was like this.

But earlier in the year, I put a video out on Austin Matthews, and this is a situation in the game. I think people think I'm like this anti, I love Austin Matthews. Austin Matthews hands down was the MVP last year, Hart Trophy winner. He is phenomenal. He's an awesome player. I love is compete on both sides of the puck. I didn't like that play. I thought as far as leadership and that next step in his career,

it was earlier in the year with, you know, got into it against Travis connecting with the flyers. And so I think people think that I don't like Austin, but here's my thing. Austin Matthews, because of the overlap on contracts and Connor McDavid, his deal will be, he'll be getting another deal here down the road.

I think Austin Matthews is set up and he should be, the highest paid player in hockey for a couple seasons, right? And that's where it's going. And so I don't know where he's at what he wants. I think he deserves to be the highest paid. I don't know where that number's at. What is the 11.7 now? And then he scores 60 goals.

He's the, he arguably is the best Toronto Maple Leaf ever. You know, like I think that the open market, if he was ever to get there, would you guys argue that he's going to get 14, 15 million? You know what I mean? Like, that's what this guy's going to get, right? And then, and obviously when Connor comes up, Connor will bunny hop him.

I don't know where it goes. I don't know what happens. I don't know, you know, it's got to be frustrating what's happened in Toronto. You know, you only get certain, especially big superstars like that when you're going to get max deals. You only get once in a while where you can choose kind of where you go and what happens. I don't know where his, his heads at with all this, but he's got full control in this situation. And then also the other part, too, let's not forget this summer that his no move clause kicks in. And now this makes it difficult to move him too. So I don't know.

At this point, like Austin Matthews, I think you're just playing, you're trying to win a cup, you're trying to focus on the now. But man, the future's, it's wide open for him, whatever he wants to do. Well, first off, as far as the Leaf fan base goes, Mike, I'm just outside of Toronto. My first job in broadcasting was screening leaf calls on Saturday. Saturday nights. Oh my gosh. So trust me, yeah, that is just, that is a fun gig just right after Elif's loss

having to go through thousands of calls to see what's going to go on the air. But let's shift gears a little bit. I want to take a look at not only the second half of the season, but something else that jumped out to me on Twitter. You were tweeting about that Jacob Truba hit on Nazan Khadry. And what, like, what an insane hit. I haven't seen a hit like that in a while, that's square. But my question to you is, and it's something that's kind of been brought up as a topic a lot.

having to fight after a clean hit. I looked it up on HockeyFights.com. You had 80 fights in your NHL career, so you were definitely somebody who could speak to this. Should players be expected after a hit like that to have to fight? No, no, I don't think so. Here's the thing. And I want to start with this, though.

I just heard Dan Rosen talk on it this morning on XM. And he brought up a great point because we saw Nas Khadry's quotes after the game or the next day, I believe, or it was yesterday where he said basically, like, I was a clean hit. I took it like a man. I got up, dust myself off, and move on. I love that response. And I love the truthfulness and the transparency in it, but I also love the accountability

in it, too. He put himself in a bad spot. And I do think it was a very clean hit. And Dan Rosen brought up, and I forgot about this. Remember, Athens-EU, when he got hit by Truba, remember what he was saying. It was different. He wasn't taking any of it. ownership and putting himself in a spot.

And I've talked to you, Mike, I believe about this before. And I've said this for a long time. Until players have some onus is the guy receiving the hit, we're never going to get these, we're never going to get hits. And this was a clean one. We're never going to fully get a grasp on everything because guys are putting themselves in terrible spots. And this is one of them.

But at least Nas owned up to it. Hey, I, you know, I'll take it. We'll move on from there. but as far as fighting after the hit, here's the thing. If I'm on Calgary's team and no matter if it's any player on the team or let alone arguably the best player on the team

in Nazcaudry this year, if I see a player's helmet fly up in the air like that, you've got to respond. You've got to let the other team know you're not good with it. Clean or not. Like you've got to have a reaction. I think there's more negative that can come to your group if you don't respond at all, right?

And so I give a ton of credit to Dylan Jubay jumping in there, and I love his response. As far as Jacob Trubo goes, you don't have to fight ever in the NHL. You never have to fight in the NHL. And you don't have to answer to a clean hit. I think you should get challenged for a huge hit because you don't want to get pushed around.

And that's a slippery slope as far as teams, and like they could take liberties on your on your team but in that standpoint too i think jacobtruba knows that in that moment that it's dylan dubey coming at him it's almost like a free pass i mean that's the way i would look at it too like if that's milan lu cheech maybe he's got a decision to make here right but uh he doesn't have to fight i think he took it like all right cool you want to do this right now then i'm gonna i'm gonna get another one in on you guys here um but i also think it's kind of the dying breed in this game and jacobb is one of them and some of his have crossed the line. I get it. But a lot of them have been clean. And we don't see that anymore. We don't

see big hits. And I think if you maybe have a little discernment on who you're going to fight, that's a weapon. I mean, Jacob Truvoo can sit there in those moments. If he hits somebody and someone's going to come challenge them, just even if you want to fight, just wait a couple seconds. Just get the instigator going, right? Like just draw that instigator. All right, cool, now I'll fight you, or just turn your cheek. And I think that actually makes it. more frustrating at times. Look at how many penalties Patrick Cornquist is drawn over his career. That guy might have one fight maybe in his entire career, but he's

a dirty player. There's times where he does some things, right? But he's got value because he's, you know, he's going to be tough to play against. So I think that if Jacob Truba uses it to his advantage even more, he can draw penalties and in that situation with cadre. I mean, they went on the power play. They scored. It was a great kind of turn of events for Truba. But, No, you don't have to answer. You never have to fight.

That's why in this league with young players and just trying to be bigger and meaner on the ice, you don't ever have, this isn't the Wild Wild West. You know what I mean? This isn't the old school days where you're going to get jumped in by three guys at the end of a game. Like, that does not happen. But I do want a response from my team if my player gets, if a teammate gets lit up and I like the way Calgary responded. Mike we just saw Bo Horvad go to the Islanders and got a monster extension even before he played his first game, scored in his team debut as well.

Now the trade deadline is what three weeks and two days away. Huge names out there, Timo Meyer, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Taves, Jacob Chikrin. What do you, who do you think the next domino is to fall here? And, you know, what are you most excited to see come out of this trade deadline? Well, there's a lot. And like you just mentioned, some of those guys. I've never seen, I don't think, trade deadline time with the center ice position, having so many really good players available.

Bo Horvett, obviously, was already taken and resigned by the Islanders. You've got Jonathan Taves, who I think it could be of value for multiple teams. I think Carolina, Colorado, maybe go home to Winnipeg. Those can be all great fits. You can go to Ryan O'Reilly. is another one. I mean, there's, there's some,

there's some talent out there. The one that's jumping out to me that I can't wait to see what happens is Tim O' Meyer. It, I think it has to happen in New Jersey. Like, that is a perfect fit for me for him to go to New Jersey because New Jersey's in a situation where they have exceeded expectations this year.

Buffalo might be in the same picture and maybe a little lesser of this, what I'm about to say, but you don't want a rental right now. You want a guy to be a part of it moving forward. So you're going to get, if you can get a Team Mo Meyer and you're going to have that big deal on your books, I don't know how that would fall for this team moving forward. Maybe if you can find a way to pull off a deal for Tim O'Meyer and keep, Jasper Brat, that'd be great for your team this year for a run.

But I think that that might kind of seal the fate of maybe Brat's extension in New Jersey. but Timo Meyer is exactly what the devils need with the star power they got, Jack Hughes has been phenomenal. And Nico Heeshire's having a great season two, so they've got a good one-two punch down the middle. Yeah, it's interesting. The Patty Kane saga and situation,

like how is this going to play out? I think Chicago has to. As long as these two are healthy, they have to move the two. I mean, at some point, like when you get a new regime in there, what happened before, you weren't a part of it.

Like, I mean, that's not, you're not the GM when they won. That was Stan Bowman, right? Like,

you, you need to rip off that band-aid and get some return for these guys. So I'm intrigued. It's going to be great. Kevin Hayes, another centerman that could be on the move here. It's,

he's got some term left too. So we'll see how that plays out. But no shortage of talent to trade that night. We were talking about it just before you came on, but I'd like to get your thoughts on the potential, a big topic of discussion, down in Florida this week was going back to the one versus eight playoff.

A lot of players won it. Gary Bettman doesn't seem to want it. You obviously have quite a bit of experience playing in the one versus eight. Do you think, do you agree with the players that think it's that much better than the current setup? So I heard you guys speaking on this. I feel a little different about it. So me as a player, I want one through eight because, and a lot of them, that noise, I think, is coming out of Toronto because Toronto has, I mean, Toronto, this year,

the path it looks like for them. And they have got a great team. They've got a team that can contend this year. It is a absolute gauntlet. I mean, geez, if they can get through that, I mean, anybody, the worst place to finish in hockey is second or third in that Atlantic division. So, you know, there's, there's players where you feel like it's unfair. We've seen in the past, where we've seen the Penguins Capitals match up early on in the playoffs in years past, where you're like, man, that should be the East Finals. Do you know what I mean? Like, I get it.

So as a player, I would want one through eight. But as I'm sitting here now when I look at things and maybe, I guess, put my business hat on, I think it's better the way it is right now. And here's why is I think we have guaranteed barn burner matchups in round one, one and two these last number of years. And if you go one through eight, there's no guarantee. Like, theoretically, you could be like, oh, man, how great would it be to have a Boston, Toronto Eastern Conference final?

That's fine, but there's no guarantee. I mean, lots of crazy things can happen in the playoffs. So I think that it's an opportunity to make sure and guarantee those games and then keep those rivalries burning. I mean, Mike, how long have we been waiting for the Florida matchups in the playoffs and we've got it the last two years? Like, I want more and more in building those. rivalries, building those things. The only way that gets built and it takes time is by playing in the

playoffs. And I also think that it helps the setup now is the other way what that would pretty much eliminate. That would eliminate the wild card. And the wild card races are really what we have to look forward to down the stretch. Like the wild card races, I think, bring more teams into the equation where there's exciting hockey and right now through March and April. So I don't know, I'm kind of, I'm leaning more towards the way it is right now. I like it. And I think that the longer it's like this, I think everybody will like it a little bit more. That wasn't the only kind of rule that was brought up or changed to the structure of the league. Jack Hughes went public saying he thinks the shootout or going to the shootout sucks. Connor McDavid said he wants 10 minutes of overtime

and then a tie if they're not tied, if there's no goals after that. I'm giving you ultimate power, Mike Rupp. You are now commissioner for the next two minutes. Is there any of those or something off the board that you would change right away? That's a tough one. Yeah, I don't know.

I would say, I would be for extending, I think, overtime. I'm not a huge fan of shootouts. And sometimes shootouts are really great in there, and they're exciting and then there's times where Evgeny Kuznetsov does what he does and I'm like that's not hockey right like that's not that's not I don't know that's not really what we

anticipate I think this being and it and you're not doing anything against the rules like it's great he's great in those moments but yeah I think extending it would help but you know Commissioner Betman brought up some great points like where's the ice in five more minutes I don't know is it going to deteriorate that much more you get to dry cut after the third.

So it's not fresh ice. And then the other part that he brought up and ever thought about, too, is when, if you start adding all those games in over the course of the season, like, that's taxing really. That wouldn't affect me if I was playing because guess what? I'm not playing in overtime. You know what I mean? It's the guys that,

Connor McDavid, if you extend that for another, you know, if you extend that another five minutes, I mean, he's going to probably be out there two and a half of those minutes, right? So instead of a normal overtime game or maybe Connor's playing 22 minutes, 22 and a half minutes, he's playing 25 minutes. And you add that up over the course season. I don't know. Is it more wearing and tear?

You'd have to ask those guys. But I would like to see things solved more in overtime and I think extending it for five minutes would do that. You would not play in overtime, but you do have more cup-clinching goals than anybody on the Leafs in the last 56 years, I should mention. That's right. Thank you. I'll have you write my next tweet. I'll put that what I'll say.

Hey, let me just, and we know you've got to get up to NHL Network here for tonight, Mike. But, you know, these races, we mentioned some that are locked. You know, obviously it just feels like it's inevitable that lightning and the leaves are playing in the first round. But there are some teams that are definitely on the precipice right now on both the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Minnesota is, you know, a point from falling out. Calgary, Edmonton, Nashville, Colorado. They're going for three slots in the East. Islanders, penguins, caps, Panthers, Buffalo going for essentially two spots.

Who do you think are locks out of those teams and who do you think really needs to either be careful or better make some moves if they want to solidify themselves going into the playoffs? Because I'll tell you one thing, the team that you and I know both know well, Minnesota, I'm starting to get a little worried about them. Yeah. What teams do you want me to go between me? Just like kind of the ball team?

Yeah. So like in the west you got Colorado, Nashville, Edmonton, Calgary, and Minnesota. battling for three. Yeah. Okay. So I think if you're going to go, I think if, let's start in the east because I can dig, I want to dig more into the west. I think that's a little more interesting.

But in the east, I think one of these two teams make it between Washington and Pittsburgh. And although Pittsburgh does not look great right now, they actually got severely outplayed against Colorado last night, but they ended up winning in overtime. I think Pittsburgh gets in. I think Washington falls out. And I think that the islanders are going to be making this very interesting down the stretch and Buffalo's got the games in hand.

But I only think one of those teams get in. So I'm thinking maybe, I like the islanders. I think the islanders can find a way to get in. Out West, this is where it gets really interesting. It's actually I'm doing a breakdown on it today on NHL now on the network, is doing a breakdown on the wild.

they've been, I'm worried. I really am. I'm worried about that where they're going to be here. I think, in my opinion, Colorado now is in a playoff spot. Colorado is just going to keep moving up. I don't know how high they're going to get. I don't know if they're going to be able to surpass Winnipeg or Dallas or anything like that, but they're going to keep, they're in.

They're not going to go backwards from here on out. I don't believe. Nashville, I don't know, I don't feel confident with them. I don't think. they make it. I'm worried about, I think it's going to come down to, I think it's going to come down to, I believe one spot will be available for Minnesota, Calgary. And I feel like Seattle's going to come back down into their realm a little bit.

And that game the other night against the coyotes, that game might come back and bite the wild. And that's the breakdown I'm doing. It's just there, I feel like this wild team, and Mike, you would know even better. their success has come by their attention to detail. And they're a team that is, I believe, coached well. Their discipline in the way they play or they're supposed to be, they haven't really been that over the last couple weeks,

number of weeks. They're kind of eking their way by against teams that they shouldn't just get by. And then they're not scoring many goals. But they're, you know, in that game against the calories, they give up, you know, they take six penalties. it's just a you know miscommunication on a faceoff for chicken second goal and then there's a total breakdown

and 2D getting caught in on the McBain goal you can't have that man like this is a team that thrives on details and the details haven't been there so I'm concerned about them but then again I don't think Calgary looks very dangerous right now so they might be able to have a little bit of room to find their way but But it's concerning because this is a team that I think is very good, but I'm starting to worry about them.

I think it's them, Calgary, in some way, shape, or form. I think Seattle is going to come down in that mix as well. And that's why we have the unofficial second half of the season. Mike, we love the honesty. We love the leaf needling. We love what you do on the NHL network. And we love when you come on the show. Thanks so much for doing this.

Enjoy your time. I'm looking forward to that report tonight and come back on whenever you like or whenever you do something hilarious on Twitter. All right, guys, thank you. Steve Ruper. Mike Rup, NHL Network Studio Analyst. After the break, Rapid Fire, so don't go anywhere. All right, boys, my favorite time of the show and yours, Rapid Fire.

It's where we take everything we didn't get to in the first couple segments and we go as fast as we can. But we've got a lot today. So let's keep to the Rapid Fire Russo. I'm looking at you. Rapid Fire topic, number one, as you mentioned earlier on, the show of Bull Horavat in a shocking turn of events, signs an extension with the Islanders eight years, 8.5 million AAV.

And Lou Lamarillo has a press availability and was kind of pressed on the numbers. And his quote was just hilarious. Quote, all I can tell you is, it's too long and too much money. I mean, you want the truth? Next question. We've talked a lot about GM quotes.

Your thoughts on Big Lou and too long and too much money. see, we'll start with you. Yeah, I mean, it's funny that he's being that honest. The first thing I thought of when I saw that is like NBA players, like the bench guy on the end of the bench that doesn't even play makes as much as Connor McDavid. So I don't think we can ever say an NHL player is making too much money. But I realize he's talking about within the constraints of the salary cap and not like how much money the guy's actually getting paid.

I don't think it's too much money. I think, well, that's an awesome player. I disagree with him. but I think it's funny that he's just so against any player getting any contract whatsoever. Michael. And he's paid out a lot of money over the years. But, I mean, look, that's why I wish Lou would do more media availability. I always find him, like, anytime he ever calls you back for an interview, it's like, you know, you get off the phone, you actually feel like it was kind of this, like, kind of cool conversation.

And, you know, he's so matter of fact, and he says what's on his mind a lot of times, even though he likes to be the guy that controls the message. out obviously from any place that he's ever at. You know, I think that there's just this, like I always look at Horvad. It is amazing that he hasn't produced more than he has because he has that ability. And I think we saw last night, I think what he could do to that team. That team needs to score. But, you know, the other part of me is that, like, look, Lou put himself in this position. When he gave up three major assets or a player that he hadn't, we think, talked to before

about a contract extension, you put yourself in a position now. where there's stress on you that you better get that contract extension done, which means that you better pay them. And so you just knew when you give up that those type of, you know, that type of hall for a player that's a rental, that they were going to have to figure out a way to overpay them. And then lose mind they obviously did. Quick lose story.

Very, very, very early on in my career before I knew just how secretive he was with everything that he does in his job. I had an opportunity to interview him. And I asked him a question that not in a trillion years would I ever, ask him now knowing just how secretive he was. And he paused and he listened. He goes, are you new to this business kid? I'm like, oh, that's the worst thing anybody could ever say to you.

I didn't know how secretive he was. Now we very much know. Horvats' former team, the Vancouver Canucks, back in the news, as they have been on each and every one of our shows, I feel like, since October. This according to Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, quote, more than one hockey person I've run into this weekend, believes Jim Rutherford wants out as president of the Vancouver Canucks. That's the kind of mess this situation is there was a lot of sympathy for Bruce Boudreau

when he unceremoniously was dumped as coach. I'm just going to say that and let you guys respond. Rousseau? Yeah, I mean, obviously, I can't speak to what Steve is saying, you're hearing. You know, I sat next to him all throughout Alstraw weekend. and he talks to so many people, it is pretty impressive. You know, a family of player. I mean, he's always running around talking to people.

So I don't doubt that what he is hearing. But who knows if that's fact or if that's other people just guessing as well. The one thing I'll say about the whole Canucks situation is it's an interesting dynamic because you have Jim Rutherford that has been a general manager his entire life. He loves to talk. He now says he's going to zip it after, you know, just some of the comments that he made about Boudreau probably, you know, fan the flames and created a lot of this sympathy that Budrow got where maybe in a normal situation, a coach wouldn't get that of a team that was playing as poorly as

Vancouver. And then he hires a GM, obviously, and Patrick Alvin, who has an immense amount of respect for, but now he's got to understand that Patrick Alvin's got to be the spokesman. And we saw it a couple times during the Rick Tocke press conference where, you know, Jim Rutherford, you know, the initial instinct is to talk and give out information. And then he kind of realized, wait a minute, that's his job. to my right and stopped himself. And so that is the interesting part is how much is he now going to be comfortable in this new role of zipping it?

Because Jim Rutherford is somebody, that's why we all love him in the media as he talks to us. Constantly, he's very accessible and very, very candid. And so that is the only thing that is just, all I'll say is it's an interesting dynamic. It would shock me that he would want out, so to speak. But I'll just say that I'm going to be interested now to see if he's going to live up to this promise that he's not going to be speaking. Yeah, I totally agree with all that. I guess the only thing I'll add is Vancouver's a mess,

which I think we all agree on. Breaking news, Jesse. Breaking news. If they do end up hiring another president of hockey ops, I just hope they're not interviewing future president of hockey ops while he's still doing the job. No, and he's got to come out and say that they're interviewing future president of hockey ops while he's still on his job. speaking of a future job, it looks as though the NHLPA may have found their man.

Marty Walsh expected to depart the Biden and administration to take over as the head of the NHLPA. I'd be lying if I said I know a whole lot about Marty Walsh's career, just what I've heard over the last day or two. But we've been kind of waiting on this job announcement for a while. But get your thoughts on this one, Jesse? Yeah, like you said, I don't know a lot about it either. I'm, this is more of just a wait and see thing. I think the players need good leadership. I think the PA could use some strength. And if he can bring that, I think it'll help. I think it could also, depending on how strong he is and how strong the PA is, I think it could lead to potentially us not

getting to watch hockey over the next few years. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. But yeah, I don't have a lot of analysis on him or what he's going to bring, but I am interested to see how the dynamic changes, because it's been a while since we've had someone new running to you. Yeah, and how the process worked, right? I would just love to know. I mean, I'd love to talk to Kyle Okoso and Nate Schmidt and Kevin Chatt and Kirk and a lot of the players that are on the executive committee and try to figure out how this worked, what impressed them about him.

And yeah, is he going to be a hardliner? You know, there's been a lot of reports and maybe concerns by some people that he's a little too close would say Boston Bruins owner, Jeremy Jacobs, who we know is sort of the de facto commissioner of the National Hockey League. he has longed in the head honcho of all the owners and so that is interesting obviously Boston mayor first executive committee or anybody in hockey I would assume it's been the designated survivor at yesterday's uh uh state of the union address I don't know if I saw the Caitlin Collins so the way it works is that I didn't know this until the television show is that essentially if the capital blows up

they need somebody that's going to be the president and they have this designated survivor I think it was a it was a show Kiefer Sutherland maybe played that person um and Anyway, so that's pretty cool, is that we have a designated survivor that's run the executive committee of the NHL. But it's just going to be interesting how this all comes about. And if he's going to be somebody that's going to go to battle with Commissioner Betman, as he can try to get this league to maybe change the hard cap, things like that. I just can't wait until his first press ability where we could ask him just his thoughts and philosophy. It's not a lot of things.

Our producer, Jeff Domett and I were talking before the show. For us, it was the West Wing. That's where I learned about the designated survivor. Two more topics, guys, and level of importance of these two topics borders on nil, but I want to ask you anyway. I saw this. I immediately jotted it down on a set. I got to ask Jesse about this because it kind of came out of nowhere, but it's hilarious.

Alexander Ovechkin, I guess he was asked about his old tinted visors. Remember when he used to wear those and he looked like he was a fighter pilot? And then he stopped wearing them. Well, the NHL had banned them in 2006. And his quote was, quote, Broder started crying to the league. I can't see his eyes. What are you talking about? Jesse, the floor is yours.

Yeah, so I love Marty. And I agree that you do learn a lot coming, I mean, looking at a player's eyes, especially. And not so much like a shot, like you're not seeing them looking at the top corner, but on like a two on one, their eyes will often tell you what, like, if they're looking over to pass. So I agree with Marty that you can get information, but I disagree that they shouldn't be able to have them because they're all. Awesome. And the awes of the tint advisor outweighs the positive gain that the

goalies can get. So I'm all for tint advisors. Let them wear them. They're awesome. If Marty Bordor. Yeah. No, I just Morty Bordor, he has a lot of power. I mean, he essentially is the reason why the trapezoid exists. And now who knew that he was the guy

that got rid of tint advisors in the league? I never even thought of that. That goalies really need to, you know, that the really good, astute goalies, maybe this explains why Marty Bador, in my eyes, is the best. You know, he was, like, I love that debate, actually, who's the best goalie of all time. In my eyes, from the guys that I covered, and personally, Brodore was right at the tippy top for me. It doesn't shock me that this is how he, you know, that he had issues with being able to, you know,

basically read eye language and things like that. So, you know, I thought it was pretty interesting. I absolutely never knew that that's the reason why that OV essentially, actually had to stop wearing the tinted visor. And speaking of the tippy top of the goat discussion, I'm drawing little inspiration from last night's record in the NBA. LeBron James, now the all-time leading score passing Kareem of Abdul-Jabar. And I was watching it, and I saw that, you know, the stat.

Karema Abdul-Jabbar held the record for 38 years. Wow, 38. And I was trying to put a little hockey context in it. And I want to give you guys a stat. And you tell me how crazy you think this stat is. So I looked, and of course, we all know the all-time leading points, in the NHL is Wayne Gretzky. He has held that record for 33 years and three months.

Before that, Gordy Howe held the record for 29 years and 10 months. So if you add that up, over 63 years, only two players have ever been the all-time leading scorer in the NHL. And I don't see that record falling anytime soon. Yeah, I was going to say it's going to stand for another 763 years. Yeah. But nobody's catching Gretzky's points record. I just think 30, anything into the three decades is incredible.

And I remember thinking just Wayne and Gordi had it for a while, six, three years. You know what I wanted to ask Rupp that I completely forgot about is what do you guys think the NHL will plan when Oveston scores that record breaking goal? Because there's no doubt the game's going to stop and there's going to be some sort of celebratory moment. But do you see it the way it was in the NBA yesterday where essentially they stopped the game that the team was going to, getting killed in, by the way, you know, for essentially over a half hour. I mean, what do you think happens with Ovi? It was wild. Yeah, well, they stopped it when Gretzky broke Gordy Howes' goals record.

I can't see, because Wayne has made it very clear, I'm going to be there. Because he said when he was breaking Gordy Howes records, Gordy was there. I'm going to be there. I can't see them going, well, let's finish up the game and we'll do something afterwards. Which I think is crazy. I think it's nuts to stop a professional sporting event of any kind, but I think they stop. Jesse? I was astounded last night. There was still 10 seconds left in the third quarter. Just let them finish the quarter. Let those 10 seconds run off. Maybe we'll have an extra long intermission or something. But yeah, there were like 150 people on the basketball court. It was like they rushed the court for this. And the game still, like I said, still 10 seconds left. I was astounded. So do you think they're going to like roll a carpet out and have Gretzky walk out and do all this on the ice? with whatever eight minutes left in the second period?

I don't care if it's five minutes into the first, I think they do. I honest to God do. I honestly like, I mean, I don't care either way. I was just shocked by it. That's what I just wonder is. Like, you know, there's been milestone moments before where they've, you know, allowed a game to stop. But I just wonder if they allow the game to stop.

They have a quick celebration, finish the game, and then do something after the game to honor. It's just going to be interesting. I mean, obviously they got a little time to think about this. But I just don't see it being anything. like yesterday. Maybe not like yesterday, but I do believe, I do believe like, you know, like I said, when Gretzky broke Gordy Howe's goals record, they rolled out the red carpet, they brought

down his wife, they brought down his kids, his parents, like, it was, it wasn't just like, hey, let's take five minutes and acknowledge this. It was a full-blown ceremony. And if you remember when Gretzky broke Gordy House points record, they did a full-blown ceremony and they still had overtime in which Gretzky scored the overtime. So, see, I didn't know that. Yeah. basketball is also easier because it's just like there's not boards around it.

The people that are going to be in the ceremony are sitting court side. All they have to do is stand up and take three steps and they're now on the court and they can do it. Whereas hockey, you've got to get them into the tunnels. You've got to roll a carpet out. Like, no what I mean? Like hockey, it's definitely not as easy as it is in basketball. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Guys, what are we working on this week? Jesse. Yeah, a bunch of stuff out of the All-Star Week. I got to talk. I probably spent an hour talking to goalies if you add it all up. Some really exciting stuff from the All-Star Week. And the Golden Knights playoff push. This team, they finally got a win last night in Nashville. And a Father's Day story. They're, sorry, father's trip story. They're on their father's trip right now. And I got to hang out with Chandler Stevenson's dad for a piece about barbecuing. Father's son grilling techniques being passed

down through the generations. That's really fun. I'm working on a while that Jason Robertson story showed up today. That was, I did behind the scenes with him during All-Star Week. Jesse and I are comboing on a goalie mooring story that Toronto Maple Leafs fans will want to read. Cannot wait to write that one. Anyway, actually we have our really cool blitz that's starting up February 13th at the athletic called Behind the Trade, where we're all really focusing on the behind the scenes of a certain trade that involves the organization that you cover. I chose

Jason Zucker's trade to Pittsburgh, but the kick there is he really takes me through the year before. And not only the trade rumors, but three different trades that actually essentially happened where he was going to three different teams. And it just sort of fell through at the last moment. And a couple of them are first time reveals that I think not only Wilde and Pittsburgh Penguin fans are going to want to know, but the teams that are involved, those are going to want to know and I think this is going to be a really cool kickoff to this awesome blitz that we did. Hey, before we wrap up the show, I did want to ask Jesse, can we throw some love at Linus Allmark and how cool of a dude that guy is? You know, Jesse said at the open on how when you get to cover these events, you really learn the personalities of different players and players that you never really knew was like this. Almark is one incredible quote and what seems like a really

fun guy to cover. Yeah, he was he was awesome. I mean, he's such a, like, charismatic guy. That's what surprised me. Like, the fact that he's a nice guy and he's thoughtful didn't really surprise me, but he's, he's got like a little bit of, like, character. I was, I was surprised. The funniest part. Yeah, the B minus. Tell the B minus story. Yeah. Yeah. So, so we're asking him questions. And one of the reporters asks him, how did, how did you like it playing for whatever Swedish team? And he, he's in the question, he says like three different Swedish cities. And God bless him for trying to pronounce them because they were a nightmare. And Olmark just like pauses and goes, well, first, I want to give you credit for pronouncing those cities.

B minus on the pronunciation. Then he goes on to answer the question. It was great. Allmark, the suit was phenomenal. The hat was great. He was fun to talk to all weekend. If only players were that fun all the time, right? And I get it.

I saw the clips. You guys are sitting on a beach basically doing those interviews. But if they were only that fun every single day. Thanks as always, boys. let everybody else know some things you should be listening to when you're done with us. Bill Garrett, I'm going to be joining Russo on Straight from the Source this week. So be sure to give that a listen. And be sure as you're doing that to get your annual subscription to The Athletic for just a

couple of bucks a month for a year when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. And jump on YouTube, subscribe to our channel, YouTube.com slash the athletic hockey show. The Athletic Hockey Show will be back tomorrow with Julian McKenzie. And down goes round. Big thanks to Mike Rupp for coming on. For Russo, for Jesse, I'm Pizzo. We'll see you next week. The NFL is unmatched.

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we can't sit here and say like this is important to all 32 of those guys. Football teams hated it. You know, issues like the national anthem, kneeling for the national anthem, issues like players speaking out in protest. Watch it Roger Good Day. like get on TV and, you know, trying to sound like he win it.

We know it there's a definite limit on this ally ship, right? I wasn't a big fan of the NFL because of what I had to go through and the way it was out looked up on it. I just felt like I was fed up with the NFL. I'm Tashon Reed, the host of a new podcast series from The Athletic called Between the Lines. The series details how America's biggest game has grappled with America's biggest issue. from the players who weigh the risks of being socially active in the wake of Colin Kaepernick

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