The Athletic Hockey Show - Cheveldayoff / Chipman press conference passes the test, Adam Fox gets paid and Alex Ovechkin keeps rolling.

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

On the Wednesday round table, Rob Pizzo from CBC Sports along with Jesse Granger and Sara Civian from the Athletic dissect the Winnipeg Jets press conference held Tuesday with General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and Team President and co-owner Mark Chipman. The Jets brass discussed Cheveldayoff's involvement in the sexual assault scandal involving Kyle Beach, and how the Jets seemed to hit on all the notes that the NHL press conference from Gary Betttman and Bill Daly did not.Plus, Civy, Jess and Rob discuss the huge pay day for Rangers defender Adam Fox, the growing trend in hockey to take care of RFA's and they marvel at the top notch production from Alex Ovechkin, who continues to get better like a fine wine.Plus, former NHL goalie Eddie Lack joins the show to discuss life in retirement, Robin Lehner, working in real estate in the Arizona area, what the Coyotes organization needs to do to attract more fans, and why pasta with ketchup is a must for connoisseurs everywhere.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the athletic hockey show, the Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I am Rob Paiso from CBC Sports, joined, as always, by Sarasivian, who's at home. Jesse Granger, who is, yes, finally in Canada. And Jesse, I'm really impressed with you because the second you landed in Canada, I was shocked at the breaking news that you put on Twitter. Two pieces of breaking news. Number one, you said, it's been a while. but it turns out Canada is still cold.

And number two, it also turns out that Putin is amazing. For us, that's a way of life, man. You're breaking news. How much putteen have you eaten since you've come to Canada? Just the one meal, but it was the first meal when I landed in Canada. It's been a while, obviously, because of the border shutdowns and stuff that I have been up here. So I had to get me some protein. I am the typical Vegas guy.

I wore horse on to the plane. I stepped outside. It was nighttime. It was like 10.30 at night when I got here. I stepped outside and it was jarring. Sarah, you a putteen eater? I still haven't had it yet. I feel like people I'm with when I'm in Canada.

I don't. I'm in Canada a lot, but like Vancouver's for sushi. Toronto's for anything. I love eating in Toronto. And it's like I've actually never been to Montreal. So I think that's the problem. I'm going to actually, I'm going to Drummondville to do some ringside reporting for a CHL game on the weekend.

And I'm told right near my hotel is the restaurant that claims they invented the putteen. I'm sure there's like a million. of those in Canada, right? Exactly. But I'm going to come back from this two-day trip, 15 pounds heavier. I guarantee it. So, please keep us posted. And make sure to follow Jesse to see how many. I want at least three putines before you leave and you got to try different places. I'm heading to Montreal after this. So that's, that's the go-to. There you go. And then some Montreal smoked meat, of course. You can't miss out on the Montreal smoke meat sandwiches. Those are, that's what it's all about. But we got a lot, guys. And we

got to cram it in because, as always, it's been a busy week. The fallout just continuing from the Black Hawk sexual assault scandal. We've got Kerry Price, possibly coming back, speaking of Montreal. Adam Fox got paid. We've got Ovechkin continuing to be all OVey scoring goals, 17 years into his career. It's just incredible. And then later on, we're going to hear an interview that we conducted with Eddie Locke, former goaltender, former Vancouver Canuck. We were going to air it last week, but obviously given what happened with the Chicago Blackhawks and that story, we thought it'd be a little better to delay that to this week because it's a fun interview. He talks about pasta and ketchup and stuff,

so you don't want to miss that. But since this whole podcast, evidently, is going to be about food. But yeah, we're going to air that in the second segment. But guys, of course, you know where we're starting. Since we last spoke, we've had Kyle Beach come out as John Doe, courageously, might I add. Joel Quinville stepping down as the head coach of the Florida Panthers. We've seen Gary Bettman and Bill Daly hold a press conference, and we saw the Winnipeg Jets hold a very, very, very different type of press conference.

I guess I'll start this week, kind of like we did last week. I mean, are you just as exhausted? How are you guys holding up covering this sort of thing on a regular basis? Because it's been another tough week. Sarah, we'll start with you. Yeah, what happens is always there's the initial fallout, And then there's even more where more either people come forward. I went to Penn State.

So I kind of, I've covered a situation like this before. That's when I started to be a journalist. And it's just kind of like I've been thinking about that time in my life. And it's just like the heartbreaking part is there's so many people who knew something about Kyle Beach and didn't do enough. So many people failed us. And we saw more of that this week with Shevoldeuf. And then I thought it was interesting. Kind of Alan Walsh has been talking about it really well.

Twitter, I think the agent. And he mentioned, why does his agent know and not do more? I've been thinking about that a lot. So here I am with that. So just sitting with this still. What about you, Jesse? Yeah. Very similar thoughts. I think that we've also seen how differently people handle it. And we've seen some like the interview obviously with Kyle Beach was handled spectacularly, I thought. And we've seen some people handle it the wrong way. I thought the least. I thought the least. handled that press conference, not as well as they should have. And then I think we saw, and Rob and I were kind of talking about it before we come here. I think, I don't know if Kevin Chevaldeoff deserves more punishment or more blame than we're giving him, but I did have a

different feeling coming away from that one than I did the other press conference. What about you, Rob? That's exactly where I want to go with this. We had two press conferences that the hockey world in the sporting world we're all watching. I walked away from one thinking, are you kidding me? And I walked away from another one thinking, okay. And I'll be honest, I'm one of those people that when this news broke, I was under the assumption that if somebody's in that meeting and they knew what was going on, well, they didn't do enough afterwards. And that includes Kevin Shevoldeoff. And whether I still believe that or not, I'm still not sure. But when I watched Kevin Shevoldeoff, when I watched Mark Chipman, I felt, and this is just me, how I felt and how I saw that,

two people who felt terrible about a horrible situation, and it felt like two human beings. When I watched Gary Bettman and Bill Daly, I said WTF out loud so many times that my wife said to me, what are you watching? You know, she wasn't watching the presser with me. They're just, let's dissect it real quick. Joel Quinville, why was he coaching? explain to me why his resume had anything to do with the fact that he was behind the bench. Can you guys explain it? Because I know I can't.

That's exactly why we are where we are right now, because it's all about protecting the hockey boys and giving them the benefit of the doubt and not the actual victim. And that was, that press conference was so hard to hear. But I saw a tweet that said, I'm glad. Apparently the NHL doesn't have any PR training because now we're seeing their true colors. And true colors with Gary Betman was shown. I don't know. hearing that, it's hard to believe any real change can happen if he's still in this position. I don't know. Maybe I'm just emotional after still listening to that, but it's very hard to believe he is going to instill change in this league in the correct way. What do you think, Jesse? Yeah, and you mentioned like Quinville's resume and like, okay, he has Stanley Cups. I think it's

less about his success that kind of kept him coaching that game and kept this whole thing under wraps for so long. and more about the personal relationships. And I think we found out that people within the Blackhawks wanted to protect people that they were friends with rather than siding with Kyle Beach. And I think that that more than anything is the reason Quinnville was on the bench coaching that game when he obviously shouldn't have been.

I think that's the reason that this thing took 11 years to come out and it wasn't handled properly. And Aldrich was allowed to celebrate with the team and do all those things that we talked about. last week. I think it comes down to people choosing personal relationships and doing what's easy to them rather than what's right. You mentioned the request at interview with Kyle Beach, which I'm not ashamed to admit at all affected the living hell out of me. I watched that thing. I was, I was feeling it throughout that entire interview just sitting on my coach. I couldn't believe it.

And then I'm watching the Gary Bettman press conference. And I'm thinking, and here's maybe a little bit of me being naive. I'm thinking, where the hell is Rick Westhead? I was actually thinking that and just thinking maybe he didn't want to be part of this. I saw he had tweeted earlier this week on the advice of friends and family. I'm going to put the phone down a little bit.

And then it took Pierre LeBron saying, how about calling on that guy for him to finally get called on? What did you guys think of that whole situation? Because I know Frank Sarvelli tweeted out that the professional Raiders hockey association is behind them, but can you believe the optics of that happening

on a press conference that everybody's watching? Now, the optics are so bad, and it's just like, they just still clearly aren't getting it. What are they going to think? Rick Westhead is going to go away if they don't call on him. I respect the peer a lot for giving him kind of a shout-out, and they had nowhere to hide 47 minutes until he had said anything. It's just absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah, and it happened after they were called out on Twitter. Like you said it, the PR side. was not handled well by the end. That's just a continuation of that. Well, it's not only that. I mean, other people were getting follow-up questions. Like I said, maybe this was me being stupid. I honest to God thought, okay, Rick Westhead's not here because we're not seeing the raising

of the hands and everything else. So I'm thinking he's not there. And what do they have to gain from that? I just don't understand it. And then you watch the Winnipeg Chet's press conference. Our first call from Zoom is from Rick Westhead from TSA. I mean, I don't know what kind of shot that was, but I laughed. Did they not have a plan?

Did they not have a plan going into this? Sometimes it makes me think I think Shevoldeuf did and Betman didn't. And that was the difference. And they still both should have done more at the time. But it's easier to forgive Shevoldeuf when he seems genuinely remorseful. And that's, I was with a sexual assault survivor last night. And she said, that's what we want to see. We want to see genuine remorse in understanding of what happened so we can move forward.

as a hockey community. Not only genuine remorse, I felt as if, look, we all have done things maybe way in the past that we're not proud of or said things that we're not proud of. And I'm sure this whole situation has a lot of people involved in that. But to me, that Winnipeg Jets Press Conference felt like two people who were saying, yes, things were done wrong and we are going to fix them now for the future, especially with Mark Chubman, who clearly he said he alluded to the fact that this touched home with him. And I feel as if they're going to be, hopefully, industry leaders in changing certain

things where I just didn't feel that. I didn't feel that with Gary Bettman to build it. I mean, when Rick Westhead, excuse me, asks if they're going to provide counseling for the Michigan player who got abused because of the inaction of the Chicago Blackhawks. And Gary Bettman starts with, well, I need to know more about that situation. What else do you need to know? He was jailed. he went to prison because of something that your, you know, an organization in your league allowed him to do. I was,

I was visibly upset. Jesse, Jesse shaking his head. I think you were in the same boat as me. Yeah. Completely. Yeah, exact same boat. And as you mentioned,

like, it's continued last night. After Golden Knights' loss in Toronto, Ron Lennar stepped to the mic and answered, he had a conversation with Kyle Beach over the phone. And he answered, I don't know, 10, 15 questions from mostly Toronto media trying to just talk to him about it. And his main point was, I mean, and we talked about this a little bit last week, like,

how much of it goes on the players? Because we put so much on the coaches and the leaders, which we should. They're the ones that were gone to. They were the ones that were supposed to handle this. But Robin Leonard had a great point that moving forward to change things, it's got to start with the players. Because one, they can't trust clearly the people above them, right decisions. And two, hockey culture is create, it starts with the players. As much as coaches and owners and everybody, they control things from higher up, the players,

if the players had reacted differently to Kyle Beach, I think this whole thing would have, would have been different. And Robin Lennar basically said, we have to be better as players. We have to look at ourselves. And we have to, and like, that's the, that's the right thing to say. That's the right mentality to have is everyone has to be better moving forward from the bottom to the top. Isn't that hockey culture, though? And that's what makes me, confuses me.

Hockey culture is you stand by your teammate no matter what. And this poor teammate was left to stand alone. Yeah. That's why this word needs to be very looked into before we've tossed it around again. We toss around hockey culture so much because it's supposed to be. kind of the purest sport or whatever of teammates and doing the better thing, being the better person. It's more than hockey.

And it has not been that recently. And we need to seriously first retire that word and then investigate it and then see if we're ready to revisit it, you know? Yeah. Well, I have a feeling we're going to be revisiting this topic again next week because this isn't far from over and that's a good thing. I'm really curious to see what happens with the NHLPA. It looks as though they're possibly going to have that independent investigation.

to find out what because again as jesse alluded to he was failed by people and he went to the hl pa the people who are there entrusted to to to protect the players and everything except that happened so uh we'll continue to you know break this thing down week to week as it moves on uh we're going to talk a little bit about some actual hockey it looks as though carry price um might be back on the ice as soon as this weekend. There isn't a hard date. Of course, he entered the NHL, NHLPA's player assistance program on October 7th.

The HABs are clearly struggling. This is one of those interesting ones, guys. This isn't an ACL injury. This is, you know, obviously he had some issues he wanted to deal with, but when a team is struggling, I hope that didn't have anything to do with, you know, his return. What do you think of this, Jesse? Yeah, I mean, you hope he got the help he was seeking.

You hope he feels better and is ready to come back. And from just a human standpoint, that's the hope. From a hockey standpoint, there couldn't be a better solution for a struggling hockey team on the face of this earth than Carrie Price. So if you're the Canadians, you hope that everything is good for Kerry. You hope that he's figured out what he needed to figure out and he feels good and is ready to play hockey because, that can help this team a ton. There's no position on the ice that can change things more than a goalie. And that guy does it better than pretty much anyone. So from a hockey perspective, great news for Montreal. Yeah, I agree. I just wish him the best. I hope he's totally fine.

And I thank him for kind of opening the conversation more about mental health. That's all. I agree with everything you guys are saying. I'm just, you know, he does play in a city that can be rough. Yeah. Can be rough. Let's be honest. And I'm pretty sure. I, you know, I don't know the, finer points of the NFL's player sister's program, but I don't think he's practicing in there. So he's got to be given some time to work his way back into this lineup. Well, I agree with Jesse. They made the Stanley Cup finals because of one carry price. I don't think we could expect, you know, Stanley Cup final carry price right out the gate.

Adam Fox, seven years, 9.5 AAV with the Rangers, which I didn't know this, made a little history. largest contract in NHL history for a defenseman leaving his entry level deal. That is a big number, guys, but a Norris Trophy will do that, right? Yeah, we keep seeing this a lot. I feel like with Spetsnikovs, too, it was biggest contract in Carolina history. And good for these guys who are getting paid, even like in the post-pandemic world. Good for them. Get that bread.

I love Adam Fox. I love the way he plays. He's one of few fellow Jews in the NHL, so I always give that a shout out. And he's just, ever since he was in Harvard, I, I covered college hockey then and just watching him, you knew he was going to be a star, the way he can walk into that zone, the way he's so versatile. And I thought he was going to take a few years, but he just fit right in in the NHL and his dream team on the Rangers. And that's the only place he wants to play.

Good for him. Yeah, awesome. I think it's a continuation of trends that we're seeing. One, in this type of defenseman, the franchise cornerstone, right? Like, this is where hockey's going. and it's awesome. I think everyone who watches hockey loves that style of hockey. We keep seeing these type of defensemen get pushed to the forefront,

becoming the franchise guys, and they pay him. And then I think the other trend we're seeing is guys getting paid off that entry level. The days of holding guys hostage for their RFA years and getting them year by year and like teams are locking guys up long term. You're seeing it with Kail McCarr, really young players where it feels like that, wasn't really the case teams trying to lock guys up for big money for long term. Just a couple years ago, it feels like this is kind of a new trend. But it also makes a lot more sense. I've always looked at when a player finally becomes an unrestricted free agent and they sign

that massive deal thinking, okay, well, where is this player going to be in year five and six of this deal? We saw it with guys like Brad Richards signing massive. And also, when those players become free agents, if it's a weak class, they're suddenly Wayne Gretzky. You know what I mean? And they sign these passes. I would much rather get a player who has proven himself in the first three years of his career in year four.

I mean, I'm not breaking news here, guys. You get slower as your career goes on pay these guys earlier. So I agree. Jesse, it's a trend. Waiting to be a UFA just ain't going to happen to get your windfall anymore. It's just so old, too. Like you think about the 8, like 25, 26. Like that is there's no other sport where guys are,

are held hostage on the team that drafted them for that long. Like, you look at the NBA. It's like two years and you can do what you want. So it's good for the players to get paid before they're on the back end of their career. Links and Jack Eichel. Come on. And before they get hurt, too. We're not talking about ping pong here.

We're talking about a very physical sport where you can easily get injured and that's going to cost you billions of dollars. A couple more minutes here. First star of the month won Alexander Ovalanche. Nine goals in eight games. He's leading the NHL and goals yet again. I think you could argue whether or not he's going to catch and break Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal record.

You could break the numbers. You can see, say what you want to say. I think the argument is long gone as to whether or not Alexander Ovechkin is the best pure goal scorer in NHL history. Agree or disagree. I agree. And I think that best means a lot of things. He's the most fun.

he's the best because he goes into that one little spot and there's absolutely nothing. You can't even defend it. Like, it's going in. He doesn't really have to do anything crazy. And that is what is so enticing and fun about him. And then he acts like it's the first time he scored every time he does it in the same exact spot. And he's been, he brings a lot of personality to the league too, where I feel like some other stars might have not.

And I appreciate that about him. And I think it's going to be awesome. Now we get Wayne Gretzky on a panel as he's going to. off and we get to see his thoughts about him potentially breaking his record, right, Jesse? Yeah. And you mentioned he does it the same way. And like, that's why he's doing it. And what is this?

His 17th year. 17th year and league, there's a reason he's still leading the league and goals at this age. And it's because he doesn't have to go through the whole defense like Connor McDavid does. Like when Connor McDavid is Ovechkin's age, he's not going to be dominating the way he is now. Ovechkin just moseys over to that left circle and then just rips it past the goal. And to me, when you argue, like, who's the best score of all time?

To me, it's obviously Ovechkin because every time I watch Wayne highlights, the guy's amazing. I'm not on here to talk to take anything away from Wayne Gretzky. The goaltending was not the same. It wasn't the same. You're just shooting it along the ice from the blue line and it goes in like every other time. Alex Ovechkin is playing in an era where goalies stop pretty much everything they see unless it's come his stick. coming off his stick, they can't stop it. It's so funny when I put this out there and as evidenced by the jersey hanging behind me,

I know it's a podcast, but I have an autographed Gretzky jersey behind me. I'm the biggest Gretzky. I grew up, you know, in Canada, as you do, worshiping the man. But you look at just the numbers at everything you said there, Jesse, I agree with, but you have to just bring up the longevity. I mean, Gretzky last led the league in goals in his eighth NHL season. He last scored 50 goals in his 10th season. we're in Ovi's 17th season.

Seriously. And he is not only a legitimate threat, he's a legitimate threat to win the Rocket Richard trophy every damn year. So as long as he doesn't get hurt and he keeps, he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. It's absolutely possible.

He's led the league and goals nine times in his career. That's mind-blowing. So people get so angry. I'm with you, Jesse. I'm not here to say anything bad about the great one. He's the greatest player in the history of the game. But we're okay to say it's OVy. Like even if he retired right now, it's OV in my opinion.

Same. And does he break it, guys? Sarah? Yes or no. Jesse? I think he does too. For all the reasons we just mentioned, he said he hasn't showed any signs of slowdown. So what if he does?

Have someone push him over to that face off circle and they just let him rip them. Exactly. What is an OV slowdown? 30 goals a season? That's an OV slowdown? Are you kidding me? So right now he sits at 739. He's two behind some guy, Brian, the name of Red Hole.

That's 741. And then Yager 766, Gordi Howe at 801, and then the great one at 894. All right, we're going to take a quick break. After the break, an interview we taped a couple weeks ago with former NHL goaltender, Eddie Lack, played for the Canucks, the flames, the devils, the hurricanes. And we talk about everything, including once again, Catch up on pasta. Very pleased to welcome to the show, former Canuck, Flame, Hurricane Devil,

now an assistant goalie coach at Arizona State University, also a real estate agent, and let's face it, just a really good follow on Twitter. Eddie Lack joining us on the athletic hockey show. Thanks for doing this, Eddie. And thank you for having me. I'm excited. Well, first things first, I mean, listen on how retirement life is going.

I mean, it hasn't been that long since you made. the announcement that you were done, but you look like you're pretty relaxed. Yeah, I just feel like ever since I retired, I've just been working more. So I kind of miss hockey now. But yeah, the hockey life was more like a couple, three hours a day, right? And now I'm more working 70-hour weeks, right? So it's a little different. But, yeah, I'm getting used to it.

So tell us about it. I mean, I know the real estate thing was. When you released your video about retirement, the one that kind of raised eyebrows, you know, most times you don't hear about professional athletes saying, I'm going to retire and become a real estate agent. But what's filling up the days? What were these 70-hour weeks like? No, it's just like listing appointments and closings and talking on the phone.

I mean, I'm on the phone a lot, pal. So, yeah, it's fun. I didn't think that this was going to be something that I was going to do when I retired, right? But I just, like, has loved it so, so so far. So, yeah, it's been great. How did you get into it? And so my family does a lot of real estate back home. And we have a few hotels back in Sweden and everything, too.

So, really, say it's just something that I've always been interested in as an investment and everything. And now I just jumped on in a hot market here. And I'm just like, all right, this is great. Speaking of a hot market, I've kind of seen some of your ideas on Twitter about kind of how to grow to the coyotes and kind of somebody asked me on Twitter, what can small market teams do to improve, like, the experience? and make more fans there.

Do you have any ideas? So the coyotes in particular, so they have the arena out in Glendale and everything like everyone else, right? And from what I understand, 80% of their fan base is here on the east side of the valley, and then you have Glendale on the west side of the valley. So it's just like for a smaller market, people don't really want to sit like an hour and a half in traffic to like get to the games and then like an hour back, right? That might work in Chicago where you have like 20 million fans, right? But yeah, it's a little bit different here.

So the biggest thing is just moving the ring to like where the fans live, right? And they just put a proposal down, I think, to move the arena down to Tempe here where ASQ's new ring is going to be as well. So yeah, it's, it's stuff is moving along, I think, but obviously everyone would want it to move a little bit quicker. Speaking of ASU, I'm kind of curious, like, what you've learned as a coach and what, how are the players different than when you, like, came up in the league? I think that the players are pretty similar to when I came up, like, the younger guys have always had an attitude. They've always had it. I mean, I had an attitude when I came up, too. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, with.

college, I feel like they're still so young. So like you have to like let them make mistakes because there are going to be mistakes and and just just to make sure that they learn from each mistake, but not be too hard on them. Right. Out here in Vegas, I work with the UNLV hockey team a lot and there are a lot of guys who came from ASU there. And I feel like there's a pretty strong connection. So I know a lot of them. It's been really cool to see that program transformed the way it has the last couple of years. I guess how much fun has it been for you from your perspective? It's crazy to like see. I mean, I think we're like six or seven years into this now and and and and just the last couple of years there before COVID and be like a top top top 10 program

in the nation and everything. It's been unbelievable. So, yeah, just a lot of fun. And with the new rink coming and everything, so we're about a year away, less than a year, I think, like, who wouldn't want to come here and play, right? With, like, the weather and you have the school in general, and then you get a brand, brand new rink with a great,

program, right? So yeah, I see that the guys love it here. I hope this isn't too obscure for the national audience, but Johnny Walker plays for that team, and he is one of the funniest people I've ever met. What's it like dealing with? I've only hung out with him a few times. What's it like dealing with that guy on a daily basis? I mean, as a coach, he just brings a lot of headache to to you, you know, but, but, but, as a guy, he, he is like one of the best guys that I met in hockey. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's fun. And I hope that this is his last year. I really hope he gets a pro contract somewhere, but if not, he's probably coming back for

year eight or nine or like, whatever it is now. That sounds familiar. What did he, didn't he do something that? like national headlines. He was the first bar stool athlete, I think, or the first spitting chicklets, athlete when they got the NIL deals. Yeah.

Eddie, I wanted to ask you about social media. You know, when I found out you were coming on the show, I went back and rewatch those videos you put out when you retired. And one thing that really jumped out to me, you said, oh,

you're going to be hearing a lot for me on Twitter, especially now I don't have some PR guy telling me what I can and can't say. And last week on the show, we really went deep into, how we want players to have more personality. Jack Hughes tossing his stick into the crowd was something we really kind of broke out. But talk to us a little bit about that

because obviously we know there are PR directors for each team. There are social media directors now for each team. But how much are you being stifled, for lack of a better word? You want your personality to get out there. You want people to know Eddie Lack is a great follow on Twitter and grow your brand. But how much are team saying, hey, you can't say that?

No, I mean, there are some stuff that I can say now when I couldn't say when I played, right? And it's just like when I first came over here, I had no filter, right? Like I just said whatever was on my mind, whether it was on Twitter or in the locker room or like whatever, right? And then when you get called up for like the first time, like the rules change a little bit. I remember that I posted something because U.S. beat Canada in a world championship. It was like the semifinal. And then U.S. were going to play against Sweden in the final. And I tweeted.

don't worry my Canadian friends, the Swedes will take care of what you guys couldn't, right? So more like a fun, like tweet and, and yeah, the team wasn't too happy. They were like, no, you can't post stuff like this, like you're going to get the fans against you and everything. I'm like, this is just all in fun and games, right? But, but, yeah, like, players in general, I love it when players show their personalities and, like, their own social media and everything. I just feel like as soon as that player has, like, one or two bad, bad games, like, the people always shows up with the, oh, my God, you should be less on social media and focus more on your game, right? And that kind of stuff kills me because we really need hockey players to, like, show what awesome personalities throw are out there. Do you know Robin Lennar?

Yeah. Yeah. Like, okay. Yeah. What do you think about him on Twitter? Obviously, I cover him up and close and see him. And he hasn't been as active the last few weeks, but he's a guy who probably more than any player in the league is not afraid to show his personality, even despite being the starting goalie in the NHL. I think that he's fighting a good battle.

I think that he is finally in a position where he's on a longer term contract. Like he feels like he's in a stable enough position to be able to speak out about these issues and everything, right? And it's been a long time coming for him, I think, because he was always. always on the one-year deals and everything, right? So I truly really respect what he's doing. I think it's sometimes maybe he's going a little bit too far, but that's just Robin. And like, you just take the good with the bad with him, right?

Like, that is just how he is. And that's why we love him. So, yeah, it's just Robin. But aside from, like, obviously there are serious things that he gets into on Twitter, but also just the joking around. Like, are there, like, are there players in the league that want to be more like that? Like, I tweet Robin Leonard's the first goalie off the ice. He goes in the locker room, grabs his phone and tweets the Iron Man explosion behind him,

like setting Twitter on fire. Like, are, are, do other guys want to do that on Twitter and just can't because the teams won't let them? I, I think, want to. teams, yeah. I also feel like when I came up in the league and everything, there was still kind of this old school hockey mentality, right? So you had the guys that have been in the league for the last 15 years and like they

didn't know social media or anything. And they were just kind of just making fun of the guys, the younger guys that were trying to show a little personality and everything on Twitter. So I think that's part of the issue, I think, yeah. You know, Eddie, when we found out you were coming on, the three of us, we have a chat group where we're kind of just discussing topics that we wanted to talk to you about. And one topic was on all three of our minds.

Best Roberto Luongo story. I'm sure you get asked about Luongo a lot, but we got to know. the best the best luongo story that maybe we haven't heard. One of the best ones that I had. So my first training camp, and I'm all nervous and everything, right? And I remember the first game that I was going to sit on the bench for Louis. And we were all in the locker room before,

and everyone's trying to focus and like get ready for the game right and uh darcy horticac was still on the team and darcy is just like the biggest chatter box that you'll ever meet right and he was just like having his own comedy show and everything in there right and at that time there was a lot of rumors that darcy was going to get traded uh so louis kind of just like sitting there and everything and he's trying to focus. He's trying to get ready for the game and everything. And all of a sudden he just like has had enough, right? And he just stands up and he's like, guys, don't worry.

Dorsey's going to be traded tomorrow. You guys don't have to worry about this anymore. And everyone just like started dying laughing, right? And then the next day, Darcy gets traded. It was just like the mess thing. Like, yeah. I'm like, oh yeah, Lou, like, I'm sure you didn't have anything to do with this. Everybody wanted to know about that story.

I am in Carolina and the fans here adore you and they adore your dad from that interview, the shit listener of this thing. But I wanted to know what Rod Brindamore. was like as an assistant coach? Rod was the best assistant coach. I mean, you always saw on him that he was going to be the head coach one day, right? And Rod always has this present above him. And as soon as you're in the same room and everything as him, you just feel it.

And he was the same as an assistant coach too. And like, I didn't have him as a head coach. but from what I understand from the geyser and everything, he hasn't changed at all. He's like the same guy that you can just go and talk to at any time. Like a real player's coach. I was going to ask you, I mean, I'm the goalie guy. I have.

So we're the weird ones. Yes, the weird ones. Yes. And I'm wondering, like, so I was trying to come up with like something to ask you, goalie related. And like, to me, the thing that's on my mind just in a broader term for the NHL, and I'd like to get your perspective on it, is goalies are playing younger than ever. I think it used to be once he's 23, 24, that's when you start like thinking he can be ready for the NHL, whereas now Spencer Knight, Carter Hart, guys like that are playing much earlier. I guess as

someone who went through that development and you've seen dozens of goalies go through that development, do you think that's a good thing that goalies are getting a chance to play younger? Yeah. I mean, at some point, I kind of feel like they're being forced to play younger with the salary cap and everything like that. And I think that it works. I just think that the organizations that go that route, instead of putting them in the minors for two or three years, the teams that do put them in the NHL early, they have to realize that like, it's not just a lot. It's not just, going to go up and up and up.

And we see these on a lot of these young guys and everything. It's like Carter Hart was so good his first year, right? And then last year he kind of had a little bit of a dip. And that's usually why you have them go through the whole minor league thing and everything, right? because you kind of want him to have that learning experience and that dip in the minors and not where it matters for a ton of stuff, right? So it all depends on the team, I think, and like where they are.

Are they in a rebuild? Are they in a win now situation, right? A case of like this can be good for their development. but you have to expect there to be some valleys in this. It's not just going to be, like you said, a perfect progression upwards. Exactly, exactly. Eddie, we're just about out of time, but I'm not letting you go as someone who follows you on Twitter and as an Italian without calling you out on.

You were kidding, right? ketchup and spaghetti. You were, please, please, for the love of God, tell me you were just doing that to rile people up on Twitter. I am going to get like the entire Italian community. together. I'll lead the way. I'll lead the way. Pasta with

some ketchup and my meat sauce and like you are going to like it. I disagree. There's just no way. Wait, you mix meat sauce with the ketchup? So you put like, okay, let's have

a discussion about this. ketchup is like tomato base, right? Right. So why is it so weird to put a tomato-based sauce on top of your tomato sauce? Like, how is that so weird? I don't understand why it's so weird. Is it cold? Is it cold?

Is it, I can't even picture how you're doing this. Is this a Swedish thing? Or did you make this up? I guess it's a Swedish thing. I mean, I thought it was a universal thing. I'm asking William Carlson tomorrow. I see where you're going with it. I get it.

So you're not putting ketchup on plain noodles. No, I mean, I'm not a savage. I'm not a savage. I don't know. As soon as the word ketchup got brought up, I automatically pushed you in the savage category. But you're not a savage for coming on this show. Eddie, thanks so much for doing this.

It was a blast. Keep enjoying life. Keep enjoying selling houses. And we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, guys. Have a good day. Thanks so much. You probably thought I was lying, but there was Eddie Lack talking about ketchup on pasta and everything else in the NHL.

We're going to take a quick break. Afterwards, we're going to read some of your Twitter questions. Thanks for sending them in. We'll get to that right after this. All right, it's that time of the week. We go through some Twitter questions to get some answers on real hard-hitting hockey topics, like what Eric underscore Kek. K-8 said, which player had the best Halloween costume? Do you guys big Halloween fans?

Oh, I'm spooky as they come. I'm depressed that Halloween's over, but they did bring it this year. I'm kind of looking through them now. Gini Svetnikov was an amazing Joker, and he always cracks the style ranking, so I was not surprised he put effort into this. Of course, John Tavares was a construction worker. Like, could you be more boring? Working Geeky was a really good Dwight Shrewt.

So I'll give him that. He saw that. Yes. The white shirt was excellent. I wish he would have had like a wig to have like the bangs hanging over. That was the only like flaw in it. Other than that, it was spectacular. P.K. Suban always usually goes all out.

And, you know, in the past he was Prince. And then he went really all out with a Michael Jackson thriller costume. And then did it again. Oh, that was a repeat. I was ready to crown that. The winner. Yeah. That was good.

And did it again. And I'm kind of going, come on, Pete. You got money? Come up with something. Come up with something else better. And for me, it's more all-time. That Max Domi Joker won from a couple years ago to me was just an all-timer. I mean, again, it must be nice to go to a professional makeup artist and say,

here's a bunch of cash to make me look like the actual movie person. But that one always jumped out to me. What about you, Jesse? In terms of the all-time great, so the Golden Knights, have had some like Halloween pictures over the years. And I remember, I don't know if it was last year or the year before that, but Mark Andre Fleury and his wife dressed up as like toy soldiers. And so they, so their whole body is painted green and they've got everything and they've got

their little stance with their weapon that's painted green also. But the best part was they're carrying around little like rugs that are in the shape of the little circle that goes at the bottom of the army guys and stand up. And they would just, at any moment, they would just throw the rug on the ground and then stand on it and pose and it was phenomenal. Mark Andre Fleurs had some great ones. He was cousin it once, you know, with his wife as well. So you got to hit it to the wags on these ones.

And I will also say T.J. O'Shee and Lauren Oshy always go all out. They were mean girls this year. And T.J. was like the mom. He's always like what you wouldn't expect. Like they did 101 Dalmatians and he was a dog. Like he's always like a prop for her. And I really respect that. Speaking of ones you wouldn't expect, I remember asking the Golden Knights.

players, like, who had the best costume at the party? And they're like, oh, you're not going to believe this. All these guys had these elaborate costumes. And then Nick Holden, who's now on the Rangers, comes in late with his wife. And they're dressed as Costco workers with a tray, with a tray of samples. And the samples are shots. So, like, and they literally come walking into the house and they're like, they said it was greatest entrance. So Costco workers with like the hairnets and samples full of shots. That's a fan favorite. I remember Austin Matthews did his, did a Freddie Mercury.

Oh, yeah. With Morgan Riley, which I thought was pretty good. Although I don't know how that team could do any kind of costume that involves a song, We Are the Champions. You just can't do that. Freddie Anderson, Ed Sheeran. Our producer, Jeff, just threw his head back. He was so angry at that one.

Another one here, as far as Twitter goes, from VGK Dean with the rash of injuries, the Golden Knights have. why the heck trade for another injured player. I'm assuming he's talking about one Jack Eichol, and this is a team. You follow pretty closely, Jesse. What do you think? Yeah. For anyone who's not following it closely, the Golden Knights are currently without their top two scores, Mark Stone and Max Pachretti.

Alex Tuck, their number one center, William Carlson. Their number three center, Nolan Patrick, and their number four defenseman, Zach White Cloud. So they're basically rolling out an H. I mean, they've still got some studs in the line. up obviously Petrangelo and guys like that. But why trade for Ikel? I mean, I don't think that their injuries right now should really impact that because they're basically just trying to tread water. They're trying to hold their head above water right now. Just survive. And that's, they're four and five. That's pretty much what they're doing. You don't have to be in a playoff

position in January. Everyone knows this. Just stay within striking distance. And to me, if I'm the golden knights, if I can get Jack Eigle for a reasonable, for a reasonable price, I'm not, the injury situation wouldn't have any impact on my decision making because I think if you, if you do make that, you're still in the same situation, except for now, you're not just going to get Stone and Patch Ready and Tuck and Nolan Patrick and White Cloud back. You're going to get all them back and one of the best centers in all of hockey. So the gold gets have been in a situation when it can't remember George, the expansion draft, they obviously did really well, but the one thing they couldn't get was centers because everyone. protects their centers. They couldn't draft a center because they haven't picked high enough to draft a good one. They can't get them in free agency because no one lets their centers go to free agency. So that's the one position that this team, as well as they're built. If you look at this team, they are very weak up the middle. They don't have a center. So if one of the best ones on the planet becomes available, it makes sense to go after him. Absolutely. We're going to have to wait

and see Calgary, also another team in the mix in the Jack Eichel sweepstakes. Guys, as always, thanks so much. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks, Rob. Thanks so much. Before we go, I want to tell you about some other great hockey talk you can listen to. Bryce Salvador, the former captain of the New Jersey Devils, joins Craig Custins and Sean Gentilly on the Athletic Hockey Show USA. And I want to say a big thanks to you for listening to us, the Athletic Hockey Show. You can follow us on your favorite podcast platform.

And don't forget, leave a rating and a review. You can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcast to get all the bonus content from the entire. network. You start with a 30-day free trial, then just 99 cents a month after that. And right now, you get an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. The Athletic Hockey Show continues Thursday with Ian Mendez, and down goes ground for Sarah and Jesse. I'm Rob. Talk to you in a week.