The Athletic Hockey Show - Chicago Blackhawks facing new lawsuit, Brady Tkachuk’s pointed postgame comments, Jack Hughes injured, and more

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

On this Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show, Ian, Julian, and Laz discuss a second former Chicago Blackhawks player filing a lawsuit against the the team for its inaction when informed of sexual assault allegations against former video coach Brad Aldrich, Brady Tkachuk’s spicy postgame comments following a Sens 6-4 loss on Saturday night, a marquee matchup of bad teams when the Oilers visit the Sharks this week, if Jack Hughes is the best player in hockey right now and how his injury impacts his Hart Trophy potential, Rick Tocchet’s impressive turnaround of the Canucks, Frederik Andersen out indefinitely for the Canes, and more.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/nhlshow to get 10% off your first month. Find your bright spot this season with BetterHelp. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. We say hello on a Monday. It is the athletic hockey show. Ian met his Julian McKenzie with you, as always on a Monday. And it's a three-headed monster to kick it off. Mark Lazarus with us. Thank you for joining us, kicking things off. Must be something happy and bright and positive to talk about if I'm here.

No. I feel bad for laughing. But you're right. Here's my thing with that, right? like at some point we will have you for something positive. At some point the NHL bolt trip on itself. I swear, I was just talking with one of my editors, and we were joking about that. Like, you know, anytime there's something like bad, whether it's a skate cut or something else,

it's like, oh, let's put Laz on that, which is fine. It's good. These are important stories that I care about and I want to write about, but it's like, I feel like I'm developing this reputation as like the saddest, wettest, wettest blanket, Debbie Downer type in the world. I'm not that guy. I swear I'm not that guy. I like hockey. Hockey's fun.

Thumbs up hockey. Hockey's for everyone. Yeah. Yeah. And then of course, then this weekend. And look, and I told you this just before we came to start recording. I really appreciated it's a tough, it's a tough one to thread the needle when you're writing about this. But I really do it. I say this now publicly.

I said it to you privately. I thought you really did a nice job of writing and stating why this is important. And what we're talking about here, if you're not. aware of this is on the weekend, another player from the 2010 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks team, another player from that squad has filed a lawsuit against the hockey team alleging sexual assault harassment by Brad Aldrich, who unfortunately became a household name in hockey from Kyle Beach a couple of years ago. And I want you to maybe take us through this here a little bit, Laz, you're very well connected and you've been following this story for a couple of years.

So while it may have been a surprise to people like Julian and I, I'm suspecting for people like you have been following this, maybe just take us through how this story came to light here. Yeah, I mean, this isn't technically a new development. It's just a new step in this process. This player is all over the Jenner and Block report that the Blackhawks Commission that kind of had that very thorough investigation of what went down in 2010. and this player was Black Ace 1, for those of you who've put yourself through the trial of reading that, you know, very disturbing document. We knew that he had been, you know, I guess a target of Brad Aldrich. We just didn't know the extent in the Jenner and Block report.

This player had said, another Black Ace, he had said that he denied that any assault had taken place. But in the past couple of years, as Kyle Beach's story came to light, I think a lot of of people now have a better understanding of what constitute sexual assault, that it might not be exactly what people thought it was beforehand. And with that knowledge and with beach stepping forward, it gives other people the courage to do so themselves. I mean, if you read the Twitter comments right now, you can see why people are reluctant to come forward with allegations of sexual assault because they're immediately called, you know, gold diggers and money grabbers and this, that, and the other thing, nobody would want to be put through that. So this isn't a new

development necessarily. It's a new lawsuit, but it's an existing story, an existing player that we've already known about that was in the larger picture of the Kyle Beach lawsuit. So because this person was mentioned in the initial report and participated in the report, he participated in the report. Right. But is this a situation where the Blackhawks would get more punishment on top of this? Where are we at with that matter? No, I don't think. again, because this was already part of the bigger picture that we were always talking about two black aces before we even had Kyle Beach's name. It was at least two allegations of this. So I think the punishment, which I know, and I largely agree with, wasn't as severe as a lot of people would have wanted it to be when you see what the Ottawa senators were punished with for forgetting some paperwork and what the Arizona coyotes were punished with for having pre-combined workouts.

the $2 million fine and the the the the ousters of a lot of people that were involved which wasn't exactly part of the punishment but was part of the process that's basically going to be it what's going to be interesting is you know we've been talking a lot about joel quendville and stan bowman and they've been working their way back and doing the work behind the scenes they were invited to the GM and coaches meeting before the season this year to speak on this issue and it felt like they were getting close to reinstatement and now that this comes out you have to wonder if this kind of puts them back on the back burner if it would be real, because it would be terrible optics, you know,

to put now that we're reminded of all the things Joel Quenville did to protect Brad Aldrich, including writing like a, you know, great job, buddy at the end of the season kind of like recommendation and let him have his day with the cup. And, you know, it becomes a little unseemly. And they probably will have to sit out a little longer now because of this. That'll be the only ramification.

You know, and I think the crux of your column that, that landed here in the last day, or so, Las, is there's going to be a lot of people who say, hey, hey, hey, it's a new era in Chicago. It's the Bedard era. And we want to just focus on Cona Badaard and Lucas Reichel and the positive stuff, the upswing, the bright future. For the people that want to do that, what's your message to them about the importance of never forgetting 2010? Well, it's almost kind of oddly funny in a way because in the last week or so, I was mulling this. about how the Blackhawks, all of a sudden, they're very likable.

You know, Connor Bedard is a really polite, nice, you know, dedicated kid. And Luke Richardson is this forward-thinking coach who everybody really likes. He's this progressive, you know, emotionally honest coach. And there's a, you know, they got Nick Folino and Taylor Hall, these likable veterans. And, you know, Corey Perry, the guy everybody loves to hate. Now he's on the team. And it's like they almost got likable quicker than they deserve to be. And then this comes all along.

And it reminds you, oh, yeah, that's why they. they were kind of pariahs in the league among the fan base for a while. And it's cognitive dissonance. It's two, you know, two things that are true. This current iteration of the team is both exciting and likable, but this is still the same franchise that didn't committed unforgivable acts, you know, in the modern era, just 13 years ago. And yeah, none of those people are with the organization anymore.

They've cleaned house from 2010. None of the players, you know, Taves and Kane are gone even. There's no real ties to that team anymore. But they don't get, you don't get to get away, Scott, just like that. It does, it's not that easy. And it does a disservice to Kyle Beach and to John Doe, Black Ace 1, to just say, you know what, I don't want to, I'm bored of this story. I don't want to hear about it anymore. It does a disservice to them. And, you know, it's the old, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. You know, it's important that we remember them, not just because they had to give up their own

dignity and humanity for so long, you know, hiding in the shadows from this, but also to make sure that the black Danny Wirtz and Jamie Faulkner continue to do the things to create safeguards and avenues for reporting, and Kyle Davidson's involved in that too. It's important that we remember so that we keep fixing it because it's not fixed yet. We have cured hockey culture. It was nine years ago, according to John Doe,

that he was being chased around the rink by a Black Hawk player and being called the F word and asking about, you know, how the blowjob was with Brad Aldrich. That was nine years. ago. That is not distant history. That is very much, you know, recent history. And it's important that we remember that that was still going on. Even if it's gotten better and God, I hope it's getting better, I think it's getting better. It's important not to forget that so that we don't backslide back to the way it was just 10 years ago. Not to double back, but I'm glad you said

what you said about the punishment for Chicago in comparison to two other teams. I know Ian and I have talked about it on the show before. We tried to explain why it's not the ideal comparison to look at what happened with Chicago compared to what Ottawa went through last week. But at the same time, this is still a situation that no matter how you slice it, people, especially hockey fans, they're going to compare what Chicago went through compared to some of those other teams. And especially with these new details coming to light, they're still going to ask the questions about why Chicago gets to be this likable team and gets to thrive with Connor Bedard when we're still dealing with the ramifications of, of 2010. There are still people who, I know your answer about Joel Quenville and Stan Bowman is probably ultimately the case with them coming back. There's still a section of fans who are just counting down the days until they eventually get that second chance back because it does happen.

Oh, yeah. People who might not be deserving of second chances ultimately get that second chance, whether they have to win a year, two years, five years, whenever. So I just wanted, it's less of a question more just of me just acknowledging the elephant. to you acknowledge and Yelf into the room that, you know, this team, this Chicago team, as much as they're trying to make progress on the ice with just being distant from 2010, there's still so much work that needs to be done. And to their credit, you know, we spoke, Scott Powers and I spoke with Danny Words last year on the one-year anniversary of the Jenner & Block Report. And he never said Kyle Beach's name, but we were obviously hammering home questions on the topic.

And he said it colors everything we do. The memory of what happened then colors everything. that they do and the culture they're trying to create. And it's too early to know if it's, you know, to know if it's working, we have to take them at their word right now, which is always hard to do with anyone in the corporate world, let alone, you know, in this team culture that given what happened 13 years ago, we take them at their word. From what we see, I tend to buy it.

I believe them. But that's a long and arduous process to build that kind of culture, just like it takes a long time to build the right kind of culture on a team. which the Blackhawks are trying to do on the ice at a team meeting after they're lost yesterday because they're trying to build the right culture and they don't feel they have it right now. It takes even longer to do that in the corporate world. It's kind of glacial. There's a lot of inertia there and it's really hard to change the way things have done.

John McDonnell left an imprint on that organization that's still felt today, the way it's run. And you can see his fingerprints everywhere still. And it's going to take time for them to do all the things that they're promising to do. And right now all we can do is remind them of their promises. hold them accountable for actually doing it. Yeah. And again, encourage all of our listeners and viewers to check out Lazz's column as you celebrate Blackhawks' Bright Future.

Don't lose sight of a painful past. Again, I think you said it so well there. Before we let you go, let us try to lighten the mood a little bit. You said earlier, you know, you want to be the guy that writes maybe sometimes the odd time,

a fun, upbeat story. I used to be. That used to be my job. Julian and I, we got a challenge for you. We want you to find pretzel lady. The woman who awkwardly ate a pretzel behind Luke Richardson on the weekend.

It was very awkward. Have you ever eaten a soft pretzel? Is there any way to do it other than awkwardly? This poor woman. Yeah. I mean, this is the price you pay for getting those seats. Those seats are terrible, by the way. There are dudes standing in front of you.

Those are so expensive and you can't see squat during the game. Yeah. And now she gets put on blast. on Twitter for eating food. Who looks classy eating a soft pretzel? What's the stadium food? What stadium food can you eat? Because you think of the George, like Julian,

I don't know if you were a Seinfeld guy, but you think of George Costanza eaten the Sunday at the U.S. Oprah, and it's all like, is there any stadium food you could eat, like you'd feel comfortable if cameras caught you eating it, and you didn't know the camera was on you? Because a hot dog's going to get awkward. Yeah, certainly nothing tubular. Nothing tubular.

The sandwich is weird. Just the idea of chewing through a sandwich is going to look really weird. A slice of pizza. It's going to be a mess. Yeah, it is going to be a mess. You mean a pizza. You know, you're holding it up here. You're folding it with one hand.

You're trying to like dangle the edge so it doesn't spill grease or cheese on you. It's true. It's true. Chicken tenders. We need chicken tenders maybe, but you might spill some barbecue sauce on your chest or something. Honey mustard too. one of those flavors, whatever you use. We're eating. We need

to consume calories to survive as a species, just like every other animal in the world. I was watching Planet Earth the other day, and at the base of the ocean, there's these disgusting things, eating disgusting things in disgusting manners. This is how animals survive. That woman needed

to eat a pretzel. She was hungry. I would have eaten it exactly the same way. My father, my wife, I swear to God, my daughters and my wife actually made soft pretzels yesterday while I was at the game. That was like their Sunday afternoon project. They made soft pretzels. And I got home, you know what?

I ate a pretzel at like 10.30 at night. And I probably looked like an idiot eating it. Yeah, but there was no camera in your house filming you. Right. So let's cut this woman some slack. She wasn't eating out of like a jar of mayonnaise or something. She was just eating a pretzel. And sometimes you got to put stuff in your mouth so you have your hands free.

What I thought was funny was when she took a bite out of it and then handed the rest of it to her seatmate to share it instead of just like tearing it with her hands like a normal. person would do. But I'll allow it. I'll allow it. It's pretzel. I'm okay with that. Like I'll say this with pretzel lady. Like, I don't know if she gets on the list when you think of all the food hijinks at sports events. There's that guy at that Red Sox game who chucked a pizza at a guy. There's that time. It was like a college football game or somewhere in Seattle where a guy is alone in this section and he's devouring an entire bag of popcorn in the rain. and literally his head like pops up

and you see him like chewing through the popcorn completely drenched in water. Trousel lady is very low on the list of There's a reason we tend to reserve popcorn eating for a dark movie theater. There's no way to eat. You can't eat one little kernel at a time. Like that's absurd.

You're eating it by the handful and you're always going to miss. Some of them are always going to fall on you. Oh yeah. Anyone who's ever eating popcorn in a press box, you're embarrassed at what you've done to the car at your feet underneath the press table at the end of the period. Like, oh, my God, you're guilty. Like, I get on my knees and I'm like picking up the little kernels and stuff.

I feel so bad about it. Like, you cannot eat. There are certain foods you cannot eat elegantly. And ballpark food, stadium food, is at the very, very top of list. It's the messiest, most unwieldy type of food you can have. Well, I'll tell you last, I made a mistake. I was prematurely, like, setting you up to send you off and said, well, see you next time.

And then it turns out, I didn't realize you're able to stay for the whole pod today. I got nothing better to do. Oh, this is awesome. I'm actually curious to get both of your opinions on something. Maybe the best sound, like, there wasn't a better place for sound bites in the media last week than Ottawa. You have the owner, Mike Antler, going off, teeing off on the NHL. And then, pun intended, Brady Kachuk here. Well, actually, no, I'm not going to, I was going to swear.

I'm not going to swear. I'm going to let Brady Kachuk do the swearing, although I think we've got this bleeped out. So Ottawa loses 6-4 against Tampa on Saturday. So just to set this up for everybody to know for contacts for the two of you, halfway through the game, the crowd starts chanting,

fire, DJ, fire, DJ. And it's loud. This isn't a hundred fans doing it. It's a lot of fans doing it. And after the game, here's what's interesting. I was going to ask Kachuk about the crowd,

but I didn't even have to because the first question I asked, so Kachuk comes out, and I know him enough to know he's hot. Like he's not happy. So I'd give him an open-ended question, which was, where did this game get away from you tonight in your estimation? So that's the question.

Here's the answer from Brady Kachuk. Yeah, frustrating. I mean, it's, whenever you don't win, it's frustrating. and it's frustrating the negativity from the outside. It's the constant booing and kind of from the crowd to tonight was I understand that they're a passionate fan base. I understand I love it.

But I mean, when you face adversity, you don't turn your back on the guys out there. I mean, we're playing hard. I know it's frustrating right now, but it's not like we're giving up out there. fighting to the very end. So to be honest to you, it's, um, I was, I was very frustrated tonight. Um, I went back and re-listened. Brady Kuchuk used the word frustrating eight times in a hundred seconds. Okay. So that, that gives you a winner. And then he's we, we, we, uh, we bleeped it out, but he says BS. Um, and I want to know, he says, what our fans did tonight. He said, hey, it's bullshit what our fans did. And I want to know

from the two of you, did Brady Kachuk cross a line? Because there's two schools of thought. School of thought number one. Hey, passionate guy after the game, speak in your mind, have at it. He's coming to the defense of his coach. And then part two or second school of thought is you never take a shot at the paying customer ever, ever, ever. So where do you guys fall down?

Fall on this one. Because I'm curious because I'm in the market. I've been sworn with this stuff for 48 hours. I need some outside help here. What are those fans supposed to do? That's my question to Brady. So you go through a week where your team's not playing well, your franchise defenseman's out for a couple weeks,

there's news that comes out that your GM kind of messed up this trade with a player how many months ago, and you're losing your first round pick, then you fire that GM. Again, your team's not playing well. There's all this speculation around your head coach, who already from jump was projected to be the first one fired. and then you have the game that you play over the weekend

and you lose the way that you do. I saw your tweetsy in about how, at least to start, they were not as engaged. If I'm a fan of the Ottawa Senators, and I hear Brady Kachuk say, you know, you don't like the team, let the fans turn your back on the team. What else are we supposed to do?

If I'm an Ottawa Sanders fan, how else am I supposed to react? I don't have a problem with him, you know, saying what he's saying. I think players have every right to feel frustrated at the fact that the fans aren't in their corner, but also fans have every right to express themselves in that situation, especially if the team is not playing the way that they should be playing.

If they're going through things that we would associate with a previous era and a lot of people would have thought would have been done with to start the season. I disagree with with Brady Kachuk here. I don't think he's wrong for saying what he's saying. I don't think he's crossed the line. And I think in a weird way, this is better than the alternative in which you don't have fans and everyone's just that pathetic, the fans at least are showing passion in some way

and very much want to change. I can sympathize as well with Brady maybe feeling away, I mean, I don't know how he feels about DJ Smith, but I can sympathize with the idea that you don't like hearing your coach getting lauded by fans that way. But I think the idea of fans feeling the way that they want to feel in that environment, especially what they've gone through over these last few days.

I didn't even mention the Shane Pinto thing. What else do you want them to do? That's how I feel about it. I did not perceive this as a shot at fans. I mean, fans are upset about the way the team is playing. And as long as you're not throwing things on the ice, you can do whatever you want as the paying customer. You can put bag on your head.

You can have signs. You can chant about everybody and you can boo your heart's content. I'm all for that. Absolutely. Express your frustration. And as a player, it's got to suck that your fans are booing at you. It's okay to feel like that sucks. And, you know, when he called it BS, I didn't feel like he was saying, like,

they shouldn't be allowed to do that. But it's got to hurt as a player to hear that. But here's the thing. I thought it was pretty clear what Brady Kachuk was doing, right? They're chanting to fire the coach. He's stepping in front of it and changing the story. He's pulling like a reverse John Tortorella, where he's going out there and making a scene, causing a distraction,

because he's the captain. That's his job. And he's taking heat off his coach because what was everybody writing the next day? Were they writing that the fans were chanting fire DJ Smith, or were they writing about Brady Kachuk takes a shot? God of fans or however it was interpreted. It was more of the latter than the former. This was a captain stepping up and falling on his sword a little bit,

jumping in front of a bullet for his coach. I respect that. I respect that he spoke his mind because it must suck to get booed by your own fans. It's like being booed by your own family. It's got to be a pretty lousy feeling. But the fans have every right. But let's just say this. DJ Smith has been every email I've gotten from the gambling folks

for the last several years, it feels like. he's been the coach most likely to be fired. He's been dealing with this for a long time. And remember at the beginning of last year where Devils fans were chanting fire Lindy? And then by the end of the year, they were saying, we're sorry, Lindy? Sorry, Lindy.

Like, literally chanting that. Like, this is still early in the season. Ottawa's got a pretty good club there. I think everyone got a little over their skis with Ottawa, expecting them to somehow jump into contention right away, instead of having a transition year, in a very deep kind of muddled mess of an Eastern Conference.

I don't think I had Ottawa in the playoffs this year. I don't know what everybody expected them to suddenly become the best team in the world. But frustration's allowed. It's an emotional sport. Brady Kachuk, we can see the way he plays. He's an emotional player. We talked to them in the locker room five minutes after the game ends.

They haven't cooled off yet. It's kind of some slack. He did the right thing. In a lot of ways, he did the mature captainly thing by kind of jumping on the grenade there. You know, it's interesting is that, so this happened on. on Saturday.

Earlier in the week, I got some time with Brady Kachuk and his wife for a feature I'm working on that'll probably run next week. And a big part of it was I wanted to know how a young American kid who was the face of a franchise,

how do you like the pressure? How do you like, you know, his brother, I think rather famously was like, you know what? I'm out of here. I'm going to go south of the border. And Brady was so insightful to me.

just talked about how much he loves the city, appreciates the pressure, has gone back, has watched old videos of Ottawa making the playoffs to see the crowd, to see, like, this guy wants it. And I am willing to give him a, you know, a one-off here because this is passion. You know, the one thing I would have said, though, if I were him, is maybe what, like, if you had a redo and I think maybe what he could have said is, hey, I didn't like that from our fans, but I understand why they're frustrated. We're frustrated, but we lose as a group here.

You want to say fire DJ, then fire Brady, fire Timmy, fire, you know what I mean? Like, like maybe that would have landed better. But I think at the end of the day, you're right, Las, he was trying to distract from, like, I can't tell you the temperature was super hot in that building on Saturday. And I haven't felt that before. Like, it was hot, hot. And he was just trying to, I don't know, let off some steam. But I don't know, I like it when athletes at least give us a little window.

Yeah, what if they just said, they paid their money, they can say what they want, but in here we're trying real hard. Who wants to hear that? I'll say this. You know, you guys are up there in Canada. So all you guys talk about is the Canadian teams. There are only seven teams in the league according to you guys. But down here, if the old adage that there's no such thing as bad PR is true,

I swear to God, I've heard more about the Ottawa senators in the last. last six weeks than I have in the last 60 years. I know they weren't around for all the six years. In Chicago of all places. Just in general, everywhere I go in Arizona, they're talking about the Ottawa senators in Vegas. Like the Ottawa senators are the most relevant they've been since they went to the Stanley Cup final.

It's not all positive, but they are, man, are they in the news a lot lately? Like, Ian, you're like the old Buffalo guys just running on the treadmill here, just constantly trying to keep up with all the news. New story after new, it's an endless news cycle lately, right, in the last two weeks. and they're off to Sweden now next week. Like the spotlight's going to stay on them. Yeah. Yeah.

For especially if you're DJ Smith, and you don't have your team pick up. Like the lights are burning hot on you enough as it is. I don't know. I don't know how you don't go through a coaching change if it just continues to get this worse. This team, a lot of people rejected to make the playoffs and you've had so many cracks with this roster.

I don't know. It might be time to do it. I don't know. I don't, I mean, I don't like anyone losing their job. jobs at all, but like I think some kind of change is going to be necessary. It happens. So it's bad in Ottawa. What's the adjective we would use for San Jose? The sharks give up a 10 spot in back-to-back games against Pittsburgh and Vancouver. They haven't won yet. We're 11 games into the year. Austin Matthews has scored more goals than them as a team. I mean, go ahead.

Cherry pick your stat or whatever to show, illustrate how bad things are in San Jose. I mean, like, you pick the best coaching. John Cooper, Bednar, you could parachute them into San Jose. It's not changing anything. Are we in agreement on that, guys? Yeah, I don't know what, like a lot of people have been saying that, you know, David Quinn should lose his job for this performance. If I'm David Quinn, I'm quitting before Mike Greer even steps into my office.

Like, that's not fair to, I mean, I don't think that's fair. Like, this team is bad. This team is awful. They have a lot of young players and they're trying to, you know, get on with this rebuild that is going to have to go through some pain before they end up being really good again. But if you're David Quinn, like, I don't, I have a hard time thinking he's the problem.

And also, if you're trying to actually, you know, suck for the number one overall pick, isn't it, aren't you better off keeping him in that spot if they're going to suck like this? What's the point of paying for two coaches? Because I believe David Quinn still has another year on his contract. What's the point of paying for two coaches? when ultimately the goal at the end of the day is to put yourself in a position

where you're guaranteed a top three pick at the end of the year. Well, that's just it, right? Because that's the point. I just went through this last year in Chicago. Now, last year, Luke Richardson was a first year coach, not a second year coach, so it's a little different. Luke Richardson took the job knowing exactly what he was walking into.

But the very clear goal of the San Jose Sharks is to get Macklin Celebrini or whoever they want at the top of the draft. Yeah. And it's going great. It's, this is the, this is spectacular. At this point last year, the Blackhawks were four, two and two, and we're all saying, are the Blackhawks too good to tank? You know, this is, this is going exactly according to plan.

Like, it's bad, it's embarrassing. They are, the crowds are going to be, that's the rough part, is can San Jose, can a market like San Jose withstand a year of this? And the kind of crowds they're going to draw? That's the question. But on the ice, they are accomplishing their goals. Like, this is what the organization wanted. Be careful what you wish for because tanking sucks.

It's the worst thing in sports, but it works. So everybody's going to keep doing it. And over the next however many decades, every single team is going to have a year like this. And it's going to be awful. I have a question. To hold on a sake, you say tanking works. It can work for if it can't.

Here's the thing. It can work. Like, like, you didn't see this with the Ottawa senators. You're seeing it in Chicago right now. Ask him in Buffalo if it works. I'm in Calgary right now, and there have been fans for the last how many months who have been saying rebuild this team. This team should have been rebuilt as soon as Johnny Goddrow and Matthew Kachuk said that they did not want to come back. I understand where those people are coming from.

But do you want to be in a situation like what Buffalo is in where you have to rebuild a rebuild? Ottawa should be well ahead of where they're at right now. We just listed off all these problems that they endured over the last little while. It can work. The thing is it's not a guarantee. that it will work. And you say a year of bad crowds in San Jose. There's a lot of pain that roster has to go through in order for them to become

really good, especially in the Pacific Division, where Vegas is still going to be good for a while. Vancouver looks like they've turned a quarter and maybe they're they could be a playoff team this year. Edmonton, I mean, they're in a really weird state right now, but we're expecting them to get out of it. And if they don't get out of it, who knows what the hell's going to go on over there? When does it seem going to be good? Anaheim has been on this rebuild for last little while, they'll probably, they're probably going to be better than them over the next few years because they're farther along in that rebuild. Pain is, is ahead if you rebuild. No set time as to how

long that pain's supposed to last. Like, even if you say, oh, hey, we have a five year plan. There's no guarantee it lasts five years. Well, you have to have capable management. Obviously, you have to make the right moves, right? That's, that's a huge. And you have to get lucky. Like, you know, the Blackhawks didn't actually succeed in their tank last year. They had the third worst record when they were trying to have the worst and they still got lucky with the ping pong balls. But it's funny because here in Chicago, you know, we have the Cubs and the White Sox in baseball and the Cubs tanked like hard. That's what Theo Epstein came in and just gutted the roster, made them hilariously bad.

And it worked. They won a World Series in 2016, breaking the 108 year curse, all that stuff. And it worked. The Chicago White Sox saw that and said, ooh, we can do that. And fans in Chicago will know they'll understand because they just saw the Cubs do it. So the White Sox tore it down to the studs. and they added all these incredible talent and it was supposed to be amazing and it didn't work

and they're a disaster right now and this was supposed to be their World Series window and they had one playoff appearance out of it and it's an absolute catastrophe. So you have to do it the right way but it's almost impossible to build a contender through free agency anymore because of the salary cap. How else can you do it?

You have to try the tank because there's no other way to do it. But at the very least retool on the fly or you have to do something like what Dallas has been able to do. Retooling on the fly never works. The Blackhawks try to do it. for years until they find L.A. L.A. L.A. did it though. Dallas right now is a Los Angeles team.

They had like one really good draft class and they're building around all those expensive players in Ben and Sagan. Yeah, Boston's like the one, Boston is the one team that I can think of that truly retooled on the fly. They didn't bottom out. They had like one or two kind of bad years. Yeah, you know, producer Chris here saying the Rangers kind of did it. The Rangers wanted to tank.

And then it kind of didn't. Well, then they got Cinarian. They went on got lucky. And it short circuited the rebuild. Yeah. Yeah, you get Panarin. Like, Panera's not going to San Jose. Through free agency.

Okay. But let me ask you. That's not a tank. Guy. Lafrenier and Kako have not been the saviors that they hoped it would be. But then you go and get Panarin and you get Chesterkin and all of a sudden things change. Guys, the game of the week, I don't care what, I know San Jose's been terrible. If I could watch one game this week, it's Thursday night.

It's San Jose at home to, drum roll, please, the Edmonton Oilers. You guys That's a game that could get people fired. Yes. Exactly. You want to talk about temperature games? You tell me right now. Because San Jose has one game in between.

They play Philly on Tuesday. Let's assume they beat even a Philly win, if they beat whatever, it doesn't matter. I mean, Edmund. If the Oilers lose to a team that's 0.11 and 1 or whatever. It's over. Good night, Jay.

I'm sorry. That's it. Like, would you guys agree with me? That's a, that's a pressure point game in early November against the winless team. Let me tell you all something. Let me tell you all something. In Alberta, before we even talked about that game, there are people wondering if Daryl Sutter should go coach the Edmonton Oilers. That's how down bad that city is.

Like the Oilers and the Flames fans. No, no. Flames fans saying that. No. I mean, some of them were saying that, but there are other people in Edmonton wondered that too. Those two teams have similar records. They're going through really bad starts. And the only reason why we're not focusing more on the flames at that start is because

Connor McDavid maybe still playing through injury and the goaltending is ass. Like both of the goaltender's same percentages are below 900. It is bad in Edmonton right now. And yeah, if they lose in San Jose, I get it's early and you don't want to hit the panic button, smack that thing. You can't beat San Jose. The Alberta economy is like. in danger of tanking, speaking of

of tanking, just because of the state of the flames and the oilers right now. Like, all the gas, the oil fields are going to go under because of this. Like, this feels like, this feels like a seismic thing happening in Alberta right now. Or I don't know. People, maybe people just don't go to the games and they actually just go work. Maybe that actually helps the economy the other way.

Jeez. Like, seriously, like, if you're a Flaves fan right now, you are down on your luck. You probably have been putting up the sign, say, rebuild and you're like, well, geez, finally, they might listen to us, who knows. If you're in Edmonton, you've been ready for this

2006 cup rematch against the Carolina Hurricanes. You might not even make the playoffs at this rate if this continues to go. And who knows what that means for Connor McDavid at some point? Who knows what that means for Leon Drysino, who is closer to being an unrestricted free agent than Connor McDavid is? And all the rest of those guys on that

team. Like, if you're the Edmonton ordeal, you're going through the start, you can't beat San Jose. That's a problem. That is a massive, massive... The shark of being makers in this league. Oh, my God. Game of the week, guys. I'm telling you right now, game of the week on Thursday.

Hey, listen, quick question. Since we're talking about flipping the clock, turning the clock back. I'm going to ask you guys this question. Because my answer is 1993 because I'm that old. If you could turn back the clock and go back to any point in time of your like sports fandom, you could turn back the clock, go.

Where are you? you going? I'm going to 1993. I was a huge Dallas. Oh, no, I am. I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. They were at the height of their powers. I grew up a Montreal Canadiens fan. They get to the Stanley Cup and win it in 93. I was a Montreal Expos fan. They were like a, that was like the peak, all of my teams. And you can make an argument, maybe even me personally, we all peaked in 1993. Okay. I'm going back to, last. I'm going back to 1994. Okay. To the Stanley Cup final.

And I am hiring Jeff Galooly to take out Mark Messier's kneecaps. Oh, whoa. Whoa. Wait a minute. What a minute? I was a 14-year-old Islanders fan, and I have still not gotten over it. 29 years later. That's the darkest day in the history of mankind when the Rangers finally won the Cup.

Because all I had as an Islanders fan in that era was 1940. and Mark Messier took that away from me. So I'm going back in 1994 and I'm wreaking some havoc. But wouldn't you rather with your Galooly stick, wouldn't you rather take out Mike Richter? No. I feel like he would. Or Leach?

I remember the first time I met Mark Messier. I was covering one of the awards out in Vegas because, you know, Kane was up for something or other. And Mark Messier was doing his ridiculous little leadership award that's chosen entirely randomly by Mark Messier. named after Mark Messier. I was talking to our old friend Josh Cooper, who is a

you grew up, a Rangers fan. And I was like, I'm genuinely worried that something's going to trigger in the back of my mind, and I'm just going to punch him in the face when we get up to talk to him. And to my credit, I did not. I survived. It was okay. But Michael Jordan and Mark Messier as a New York, as an Islanders and Knicks fan growing up,

I walk by the Michael Jordan statue every day when I go to the United Center. And in my head, I'm flipping them off every time. Because in 1994, things should have been a lot better for me with the Knicks and the island like those mid 90s something good should have happened in there for me instead I got to watch michael jordan win six championships and i got to watch mark god damn messier lift the stanley cup john starks this is this is this is tough man yeah where are you going julian turn back the clock man i i think 2010

we're actually 2011 might 2010 or 2011 because at the very i was in high i was in high high school at that point. I was still a Montreal Canadians fan. So 2010 I would have watched that dream run for the Montreal Canadian's as they get to the conference final. They lose to Philly, but that was still like a really remarkable run.

I did grow up an Expos fan, but I did also like the New York Yankees because a lot of my friends were Boston Red Sox fans. So I'm still probably riding off the high of the 2009 World Series run. I'm a New York Jets fan. And that year they were pretty

good. Even though in 2011, that's what the playoffs. It's the best you could do with the Jets is pretty good. I have a story from that year. I know it's in 2011 where it happens, but in 2010, they finished 11-5 that season. And at some point in that year, whether last year or the year before, they had this terrible loss to the New England Patriots. And my history teacher thought he was funny. Thought he'd be, he'd do a good joke. He cut out the newspaper of the box score with the game story that day of the Patriots just destroying the Jets and he hung it, uh, like above my desk. Like my desk in the classroom was like right on like near a wall and he decided to just put the game story like right above my desk. And I was just like, you know what? Fine. We're going to, we're going to go through this.

The Jets upset the Patriots and the playoffs that year. And I ripped it off like that day in class. That was a, it was paid for a couple months. But, uh, that was that was tough. I, I'm actually something we, he's something we could share, Julian. I grew up a Giants fan. Yes. So if I was looking for a happy memory. It would probably be the year that they beat the Patriots, the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. Yes. That playoff from that whole player from with the Packers, the NFC championship in the season. I was 27. So I was kind of like in peak meat, meatball mode where I could still just completely lose myself in fandom. And I'm not sure I'll ever have as a month. It's not like the Giants are hilariously bad right now. I'm never mad at the Giants. I got four Super Bowls out of the Giants in

my lifetime. Two is a kid. Two is an adult. One I covered. The last one I covered because it was here in Indiana. So like I've gotten everything I could ever need out of the Giants. It's all gravy from there. But I would, I would, I would go back and relive that playoff run any day. Oh, man. The only other thing I would add to that is, oh, go ahead. Sorry, you got a Jeff Hostetler Super Bowl. That should have been enough. Hell yeah. I was 10 year old. One Jeff Hostetler Super Bowl is, if Scott Norwood had, if Scott Norwood had made that field goal at the end of that Super Bowl 25, I would have made like $400 in the, in the box pool. And I was 10 years old. So that's like a trillion dollars to a 10 year old.

And I was totally fine with that because I just wanted this. That's crazy. The only other thing I could say about my indecision between 2010 and 2011, I grew up a Dallas Mavericks fan because they had Steve Nash, and I was a big fan of Dirk DeWittske. And I got to watch them at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks that year, 2010, 2011, one of those two. And that was the year they ended up winning the NBA finals.

So a lot of my teams around that time did relatively well. So 2010, 2011, I think is where I would probably end up. Okay. Hey, before we, I want to hit on Jack Hughes and some stuff in Carolina. Real quick, just to go back to the 94 Cup final, I had this great conversation. I got 30 minutes with John Cooper this weekend in Ottawa. Okay. And it's funny because I did a big sit down with him.

But he was telling me, because I told him, look, I grew up in Vancouver. I knew he's a BC guy. and he told me when the Rangers were in the cup, Las in 94, you'll appreciate this. He was living in New York City. I guess this was during his law phase. And he said he was the only guy in his entire friend group just pulling for the Canucks.

That was me. In New York City, that was you. So you and John Cooper were both pulling. But then this is what I wanted to ask you about. Because as we're going to do the interview, and we were looking for a room inside Canadian Tire Center. He's like, hey, let's go sit down somewhere. Let's go find a room.

But before we did that, the Lightning had their practice and they had like a catered lunch. Okay. And Cooper goes by, he's like, he says to me, he's like, anytime I see egg salad in Canada, I got to get it. Because egg salad in Canada is far better to what we get in the States. And I'm like, I was like, I've never heard that. So I want to ask you, Laz, do you notice a difference in egg salad like John Cooper does when you crossed the border.

Ian, you could not pay me enough money to try it to eat egg salad. Oh, you're the wrong guy. It's just a, here's a pile of mayonnaise. You want it? It's like, no, I don't actually. Thank you. So I can't, I am not qualified to answer that question. I don't think I've ever agreed on a topic with you more.

Oh my God. I think the, I don't, I don't really like eggs to begin with. So the idea of eating eggs salad is repulsive. How does, how does, how does, how does, how does, how does, how does, how does, I don't, I don't, slathering something in mayo make it salad by the way? How does slathering anything in mayo make it good? Salad mayonnaise is overrated.

It's awful. It's vile. If you're watching this on YouTube, watch the breaking news crawl underneath the screen here. We just needed a flashing breaking egg salad battery. That was John Cooper by the way. I had a great conversation with him. Big surprise that the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

edition of the athletic hockey show would say that mayonnaise is overrated. Yeah. Jack Hughes goes out on... I'm glad you said it. That's pretty good. Oh, my God. Hey, listen, we better get this thing.

Guys, we better get this back on the rails. Otherwise, people would be like, they never even... They talked about John Starks and mayonnaise in their hockey podcast. This is a hockey podcast. I don't want to hear about mayonnaise. You know, hockey. They got the soy boy here, too.

What is this? Soy boy. Mark's Lazarus. I want to ask you guys about Jack Hughes, when he went down on Friday night, I think there's a lot of us that thought, oh, my goodness, this is awful. Now, the good news is it sounds like it's not as bad and maybe this is like a week-to-week thing. But it's early in the season. I don't think there's been a better play in the NHL than Jack Hughes so far this season.

And like, we need this type of star power and whatever. but like to me he's the best player in the game in the first 10 games of the season. I hope he's not out long enough that it alters his heart trophy candidacy, if you know what I mean, right? Yeah. That's what I hope. The devils were in town here in Chicago last night, Sunday night, and they're not the same team without him. No. He's the marquee attraction.

They're a good team. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, Jack Hughes is one of my favorite players in the league to watch, just the things that he can do. out there. He's just so creative and talented and shifty. And, you know, it's, it's, it's not the same watching that team without him. I'm not just saying this because he was my first round pick in the Athletics Fantasy League. I got him at number nine and looked like a genius for a couple of the weeks there. So I, but I want him back because he's just one of my favorite players in the league to watch. He just, I remember when he was a rookie, like, this guy's a bust. He's too small. It's like,

give him, give him a year. Give him a year. And within two years, he's a 50 goal score. and arguably an MVP candidate. And he's just going to get better. He's still so young. He's just kind of coming into his own. So I hope he's back soon. Yeah, I thought about the injury, and I really hope that he ends up coming out okay from that.

I also thought about the predictions I did on Down Goes Browns. Everybody had that call out for predictions where he wanted everyone to put together this list in the comments. Like, I've been all in on Jack Hughes being an MVP, and I put him there. And if I lose out on that because of that, that's going to suck. Also, the idea of... Because we're both very selfish, that's why.

Yes. Also on my fantasy team, I have Yesper Brought and Tyler Tofoli. I really need him back for back. Another thing I will add too, which is less selfish for me, Jack Hughes being an MVP candidate, his brother Quinn being a favorite for the Norris Trophy, and Luke Hughes, another brother, fighting with Connor Bardard for the Calder Trophy.

I don't know if it's ever happened before where you have brothers just dominating awards talk as we've seen so far, but the idea that we are seeing another hockey family just enter the league and take over, that's also a really cool story in itself too. There's a lot of things, obviously, with Jack Hughes that directly affected New Jersey Devil's and himself. But for hockey fans everywhere, there's all these other fun little things that we lose out with him not playing. Can you imagine what it must be like to be their parents?

I get so excited. I get so excited when my daughter pays attention in soccer, when she actually like, realizes that an opposing player is rushing the ball towards her, and she tries to, like, stand in his way. I'm like, yeah, you did it. Like, imagine if you had, like, three, three, your three kids are the best in the world at what they do. Like, that must be just so gratifying all those early mornings and late nights

and all the money you have to pour into hockey. I mean, that's got to be the coolest thing ever. Yeah. And like you said, Julian, like, there's a legitimate chance that one or two of them win awards or finalists, at least, for awards this season. and I think Quinn, like, there's some big surprises.

I think like Edmonton and Vancouver play each other Monday night. And if you had told me at the start of the year, yeah, this is going to be a matchup between the most dysfunctional team in Canada and the best team in Canada. I'd be like, yeah, that sounds about right. Except just flip the order.

Flip the order, yeah. At what point do we give Rick Tocket a ton of, and again, This is all at kind of the 10 game mark. But if you're asking me to say who should win the Jack Adams, he's got to be right near the top of the conversation. Like this entire program is turned around in Vancouver right now, right? Yeah, I'll say this.

If you're a Vancouver Canucks fan and you are still mad at the fact that, you know, the dysfunction went that the way that it did and it still didn't get you, Connor Bred, then you better hope that this team actually finds a way to compete sooner than later. This, for me, if I'm a Canucks fan, is the next best thing you could want besides not having Conradar, which I'm sure is still going to sting for a lot of people. But you got to give Rick Talkin some credit. He came in last year. He had that time to implement his tactics, his thought process and getting those guys in shape. And now it looks like it's paying off.

I mean, we forget, but like Quinn Hughes, Elias Pederson, I know they had to deal away Bull Horvath, but Brock Besser, look, at least had a good start to the year. or Thatcher Demko. Like, they have good pieces in that core. It's just they never got the most out of them with whoever was coaching them, whether it was Bruce Boudreau or Travis Green. But if Rick Tocke is the guy that gets them there, that's a really good story. And it's really easy to forget that those guys were supposed to be farther along in their development than where they're at right now.

But I think they're ending up being a really cool story to start off this season. Yeah, I think I think it made the best point is that their best players are being their best players. like all of them. Like they're all playing to the best. And that does often speak to coaching. But let's not sleep on Greg Cronin here in Anaheim, Anaheim, which was supposed to be one of the worst teams in the league. They are competitive.

They play with structure. They are, that is a well-coached team that's surprising a lot of people. Jim Montgomery, anybody? Always, yeah. Yeah. Jim Montgomery, man, just showing, I mean, Boston's a team that I thought was, I mean, we know all this show.

Like, it was very difficult to predict. Now they're off to their best start in franchise history. And you know what's funny? I think of the Tampa Bay Lightning with this team where they had that amazing President's Trophy season and then they choke in the first round of playoffs.

What do they do? They return to the playoffs and they end up dominating and we know them now as one of the best teams if not the best team of the salary cap era to this point. What if Boston does that? Like what if they found a way to be competitive all these years but they win the President's trophy last year

it doesn't go well. And then this year they say, well, everyone counted us out, we're good enough to go all the way to the Stanley Cup final and actually win it this time. Like, what if they actually do that? Like, that's entirely possible. What if we get Vegas, Boston, in the Stanley Cup final this year?

That would be an insane matchup. The Bruce Cassidy, boy, just think of the, yeah, the storylines out of that one. Look, I think a lot of people, oh, sorry, Elijah, I could see your lips were pursed to say something. No, I was just to say one more coach of the year candidate.

I think you have to look at David Quinn. He's gotten a single point out of that roster. That's pretty impressive. It's not straight losses. One of them's in overtime. Yeah. I mean, John, if we're going to, if we're just going to list off candidates, I mean, John Cooper, I get a lot of people are going to list him as a favorite because of the fact that Andre Vasselowski is not there. But the fact that he has not won one to this point is really surprising to me. It's never the guy with the best team, right? It's always the most surprising team. So his team was always good. So he got punished. Right. But at the same time, I feel like, I'm not saying

But that's, you know, the Jack Adams vote, and that's not one of ours is the PHWA, so we can make fun of it. It's one of the lazier, I think, voting styles of all the awards there. And you know, yeah, go ahead. The two years, Cooper was a finalist for the Jack Adams in 2014. They gave it to Patrick Waugh in his first year in Colorado. He was a finalist in 2019 when they had the 62-in season. They gave it to Barry Trots in his first year with the Islander. So it generally skews to-

Those guys are coaching. But it generally skews towards- People that have just come in and turned around a program kind of immediately. You know, like you can point to their- It's surprised at the most. Whatever team that we thought was going to stink, it's actually pretty decent.

That's your coach of the year. It's really-old. And that's why Vancouver, Rick Tocke, is the guy that I think might get some votes. Okay, we want to wrap up because another team in the Eastern Conference made some news on Monday. That's Carolina. They announced, I'll read the press release,

year from Don Waddell saying during recent medical testing, it was discovered that Frederick Anderson had a blood clotting issue that needed to be addressed. No timetable for his return. We are confident that Freddie will be able to make a full recovery, but Yer O'Halak now kind of coming in, maybe to help out. Carolina is a weird team and that they got, they're rocking an 870, yeah, 875 save percentage as a team. Wow. Every year we're like, I don't know about their goaltending and that, you know, they're off to a pretty good start. They, whatever,

the seven and five, whatever, but do you guys feel like this injury alters your view of Carolina in any way, shape, or form? Or not really?

Or how do you feel about this? I don't know. Like, this is a team that found a way to make it work with three goalies last year. They still have Piotr Kuchkov

in the ranks too. I think anti-Ranta still there. They found a way to make it work with those guys last year in that three tandem set that they had with all the injuries affecting them.

So, no, I don't necessarily, I'm not looking down on those guys. They still have all those players up front. Yeah, I have a hard time kind of counting those guys out. I still think they could end up being a playoff team that goes far in the Eastern Conference. It's unfortunate for Frederick Anderson that he's dealing with the health issue that he is going through. I think they might also make a move as well.

Who knows? It seems like if you pay attention to Elliot Freeman from over the weekend, it looks like they might be trying to move on from a defenseman. I don't know. I think this team is still too competitive to write off. It's tough. I wish Freddie Anderson the best. I've never been the biggest Freddie Anderson guy.

I've never been convinced that he's really an elite goaltender. I think we've seen that enough times in the playoffs to know that he's good. He is a good goalie, but he's not necessarily like a guy who's going to win you a cup. But that's kind of the Carolina model, right? It's not dependent on one person. It's a system. It's the totality of that roster, which is so good. Now, in the past that they haven't had is finishers or an elite goalie.

So, you know, last year the injuries played into it, but they need people who can bury the puck and they need people who can stop the puck. And that's what's held them back is they haven't had an elite player on either side of that really been able to, you know, a 50 goal score, a 930 save percentage kind of guy that can win you a Stanley Cup. So this is certainly a blow, but I don't think Freddie Anderson was the guy necessarily anyway. It might be could talk. I always get his, I'll call him Peodor because I always get his name wrong. It might be coming in from the outside. I don't know what it's going to be, but I wish Freddie Anderson well, but I don't think he was the one that was going to make or break their Stanley couples.

That's not how it's still there. Julian, did you see, I don't know if you're looking at their stats, but you know who's leading Carolina in scoring right now? I want to try to guess this myself. So this doesn't sound like Sebastian Naho is, Gisperry Kockenemi. Is that the answer? Yeah, that's what I was going to see.

Kisperi Kockenyebys off to a really good start. 12 points in 12 games for a super polarizing guy, but 12 points and 12 games for Kotkenyemi is pretty good. This area Kockenemy is a guy that the Montreal Canadian should have taken their time with and they rushed him to the league way too early and now

they're seeing him. I mean, now we're seeing him slowly start to realize himself into the player that he was supposed to be. I always thought he was going to be a good center. He just needed that time and that's the tricky thing with prospects. We rush these guys so fast. And if they're not dynamite

out of the gate, it's so easy, to write them off. Kirby doc, anyone, yeah. Yeah, seriously. And the fact that he's succeeding in Carolina right now, and look, who knows what could happen later on in the year, but that patience is a virtue, man. It's a testament to Carolina just waiting on him to be that player,

and they're starting to see some early benefits finally. Like, that's, I'm happy for it. No, but, but Julian, at least the halves have learned their lesson with Slavkovsky. Hey, they put him on the top line the other night. It worked? Yeah. That's a tough one.

That's a tough market to try and be a number. Like it's almost like way back in the day they had that Doug Wickenheiser kid who came in. And it's just like it's hard. It was going to be hard for Katkanemi. It's hard for anybody taking in the first round there to thrive. Right? It's hard. And I mean, last, you're seeing it right now with Bidar, like in a hockey mad market.

There's like people are watching every shift. Right. They're watching every game. They're watching every movie. and it's hard to crack in as a first round pick, let alone first overall, in an original six market. I mean, Austin Matthews has done it very well, but it's hard to do. Yeah, I mean, I mean, Badard, he talks to the media like literally every day.

He's out there. He's been scoring goals, but he hasn't had any multi-point games yet. So people are like, well, he's pretty good, I guess. Like, no matter of pressure, you put on these guys. I mean, it's ridiculous. been great on and he's got no help look at look at the line he's on look at the roster he's on you know he needs elite players need elite players to play with any people who can think the game the way to it's it's really hard most of these guys walk into teams that aren't very good that's how

they got these guys right is by being bad and it could be really difficult to to succeed jack hughes we were just talking about didn't succeed didn't score much his first year and people were wondering lefrenier and caco a lot of these guys it takes time for them to figure out their role to figure out their ideal linemates to figure out life in the NHL. And, you know, Bidar seems to be doing great. But, you know, it's not as good as Austin Matthews' first couple of weeks was when he scored four goals in his first game. You know, you got to give these guys a chance to breathe and to experience failure for the

first time in their careers, learn to handle it. Well said. Well, tell you what, why don't we leave it there? I know I only teed you up as an early segment guest. And then I was like, ah, you stand for the whole show. I'm going to get some mayonnaise now. Just going to eat it straight. straight mayonnaise, a.k.a.

You don't have enough as it is? I hate my kids. My kids like me, I had to make their sandwiches for school. And when they want mayo on it, I have to like, you know, like hold the bread really far away from me. So I don't have to like be exposed to the mayonnaise. God, I hate mayonnaise. You guys, let me ask it. This is a random question.

Because we had a huge debate on radio years ago with my co-host. He did not refrigerate his mayonnaise. Yeah. After opening it. And I'm like, that's nuts. And he's like, well, I never got sick. And then we had a bunch of people like, Yeah, he was probably inoculated against every bacteria known to man ass.

Yeah. And then, but then the weird thing is we had people writing into the station saying, yeah, I don't, I don't refrigerate my mayonnaise either. I'm like, what is going on here? Just for the proof that mayonnaise is not a substance that is meant to be consumed by humans. Yeah. I just Googled refrigerating mayonnaise. And the first thing that comes up is from this website, food and wine.

mayonnaise. You may buy mayonnaise off a non-refrigerated shelf, but the second you pop the top, you must put it in the refrigerator. In fact, the USDA recommends Open Mayo be tossed in the trash if its temperature reaches 50 degrees or higher for more than

eight hours. I know. I think it should be thrown out no matter what temperature it is, but I agree. You see how it is. Oh, man. You know what it is. You love it. All right. Hey, last, thanks for hanging out with us for the hour. This was

fantastic, man. Yeah, man, always. Yeah, and Julian, you and I are back at it. Mike Rousseau is back with he's got Mike check. Is something funny about Mike Rousseau? No, no. It's in the process wise It's Mayo more than Mark Messier.

Yeah. Hey, you could eliminate one thing, Mayo or mess. What's it going to be? Oh, it's Mayo. I've moved on for Messia. I'm a grown man now. I love it. I love it.

I hope somebody makes a sculpture, a messier sculpture out of mayonnaise for you and just delivers it. All right. We got Mike Rousseau, as always. Mike check, Lindy Ruff. We were talking about fire, Lindy, sorry, Lindy. Lindy Ruff is going to be the guest on the athletic hockey show with Mike Rousseau in conversation with Rousseau tomorrow.

Julian, so we'll have that conversation to look forward to you. All right, man. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. This is going to be fun. They don't call them the best Coulare man in the business for nothing, folks. People who are listening to this were probably, like, I didn't realize that there was that

scroll going on the screen about that. That's why these guys were laughing. Anyway, all right, we had a ton of fun here, this hour of food by. Thanks again for listening to the Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Julian and I will hit you up with Mike Luceau. No mayonnaise.