The Athletic Hockey Show - Connor Hellebuyck to receive highest US civilian honor

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Coming off a celebration in Miami, a luncheon at the White House, and for most of the gold medal-winning United States hockey team, an appearance at the State of the Union, Sean, Frank and Sean discuss a whirlwind couple of days for the American team, including Connor Hellebuyck being named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Frankie presents his Dudes of the Men's tournament in Milan, the guys debate if Auston Matthews has shed the criticism of not being a winner, and with the Olympic trade freeze over, Sean and Sean comment on the Brett Kulak for Samuel Girard trade between Colorado and Pittsburgh and Sidney Crosby being placed on IR for four weeks due to a lower body injury.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, what up is the Athletic Hockey Show for February 25th, 2026. Boys, my resolution coming into the second part of the season is I'm going to stop saying the incorrect date at the top of the show. I'm going to go 100% down the stretch. I will not get the day, date, or year wrong. I'll deny that. I will call you out on that. There's no.

And by the way, I'm not, I'm not going to catch you because I never pay attention to what date you say. You don't pay attention when I'm talking about anything. Like, whatever. It's fine. Why should you? Why should you and why would you? NHL hockey's back tonight. Fellas, I think we got 10 games.

Is that right? We're going to get into that. We're going to try to reopen the book on the season after, geez, Louise, however long it's been 20 days or so without games. Oh, brother. And we're going to look back at the Olympics. Frankie, we haven't talked since the gold medal game, obviously. We're going to get into that. But before we do that, we do need to recap the U.S. men's trip to Washington, D.C.

for the State of the Union last night. 20 of the 25 players ended up going. 17 seemed to be in attendance for Donald Trump's State of the Union last night. This is after an Oval Office session with them beforehand. Trump made the introduction about 12 minutes into the speech after declaring that the state of the union was strong, of course. And then went into freelance mode, introduced the team. I'm not going to read all of it,

but you went into a whole thing about other countries winning again. We're winning so much. Don't know what to do about it. It's classic Trump stuff. Introduce them saying, you're going to win again. You're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever. and to prove that point, to prove that point,

here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud, the men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. And then they descended from the stairs in the back of the U.S. Capitol and in the house chambers and stood in the aisles and clapped for a little bit. Everybody was complimentary.

Jack Hughes, Quinn Hughes were at the front of one of the groups. They were exhorting for more applause, which, you know, was funny to see. I suppose. And then they were gone. My thoughts on that is that's about what we expected. I think Trump said it himself during the little run-up there. You know, to prove the point here with us tonight is a group of winners.

He's trying to associate himself with winners. And he called a bunch of gold medalists out. They were happy to receive the invitation. And then off they went. Sean Frankie, I know you guys are Canadians I would If you want to share the Canadian's view

On the way things went down last night By all means Let me let me just share the married guy's view Yes please So if you were just gone for You know whatever it was 20 days 19 days at the Olympics And your poor wife was at home

Wherever she is Maybe he doesn't have any family help there She's got a few kids at home And you made that call You're like honey I'm so like so happy We won she's like baby I'm so proud of you you get home. We all can't wait to see you. Hold on a second. Actually, we're going to fly to

Miami. We're going to party at one of the best nightclubs in the world for a night. So I'm going to let my hair down a little bit. People will be naked there. People are going to be naked. And you know the, like, you know, and then we're going to hop on a bird, military bird. We're going to go to DC. We're going to hang with, with, you know, everyone there. We're going to do all of that. So I'll be home a couple days later. And I think what the white. who maybe has been drowning for three weeks would say is, honey, no problem. When you get home,

there'll be a nice, flat stack of divorce papers waiting for you to sign. Just let me know when you want to come collect them. So that's the married guy with young kids point of view. I call that the Brock Nelson point of view, yes. Brock Nelson had to get home to the kids and the grandkids and the great-grandkids. He left his just for men at the house. just couldn't live without it any longer.

Yeah. My perspective on it was, I think that what happened last night, by all reports, because I sure didn't watch it. Why not? I think we avoided any of the worst case scenarios that we were worried about. Trump didn't do the 51st state bit.

He didn't say anything extraordinarily stupid by his standards and then have the smash cut to miscellaneous NHL player clapping along or laughing or anything like that. So I think all things considered it went about as well as it could have. The perspective I was interested in was the Canadian perspective because putting political opinion aside Donald Trump is an extraordinarily unpopular. figure in Canada. This country

has largely turned on Wayne Gretzky because of his association with Donald Trump. That is Wayne Gretzky, arguably the most popular Canadian of all time up until a few years ago. So if you think

that we would never cast an angry glance at Jake Sanderson or whoever else you're mistaken. It's a tough situation I think for the five American team USA players

who play for Canadian teams and we saw sort of a mix. Kyle Connor just bailed on the whole thing. Got back to Winnipeg said all the right things. I'm here to win, where to playoff race,

et cetera, which is what I thought all of them should do. Every one of those players is on a team that's not in the playoffs right now. I wasn't expecting anyone to make some grand political statement. I thought the thing to do would be to say, appreciate the invites, great honor, love my team USA teammates, but I got to get back to work.

I make millions and millions of dollars to help an NHL team in Canada get to the playoffs. We're not there yet. So that's my focus starting right now. And I think people in probably both countries would eat it up with a spoon. but only one of them really played that card. That was Kyle Connor. Austin Matthews went to the White House event and then skipped the state of the union. He gets back to his team in time that he can play tonight.

That is a big one. I think anyone who missed a game for this stuff would have been rightly dragged for it. And then you had hit the other end of the spectrum. Connor Hallibut not only there, but gets the presidential Medal of Freedom, which is a very cool honor, not a, you know, not a political one. This isn't, you know, they didn't make up the Donald Trump winner award and give it to them. They, they use something that it already been established and has been used for other athletes. So that's great.

That's a cool honor for him. And then Sanderson and, and, I mean, Brady could choke. I don't think anyone was expecting he was going to get a skip out of the thing. And the senators don't play till tomorrow. So it had some extra time then. I think it was, the whole thing was a minefield. I think this could have gone a lot worse. I know that there's certainly a lot of league fans who are not happy with Austin Matthews for having any part of it.

I imagine it's the same with Senators fans and maybe Jets fans as well. But certainly the conversation we're having this morning, not as bad as it could have been. And that was part. That was why it was I thought bad judgment for these guys to go. Just don't put yourself in the situation where you can look ridiculous. And I guess we managed to avoid that. So yay, I suppose. And the great news is NHL hockey is back.

Like I feel like people are so sick of this, because this is all anyone's been talking about, right? Like now we finally get NHL games back. We get to sink our teeth into it. Like, I don't know. Not that I don't want to like push it to the side, but I think there's a lot of people that are happy that like we're starting up now tonight. And it's go time again.

And it's like, wait a second. where's my team at? Who's healthy? Who's hurt? Like all these big questions for the last 25 or games or so coming up. I think that's why, you know, last night went for that purpose.

If you're someone who wants to just try to move past the last, you know, the drama of the last couple days and make it out of this minefield, I think that, I think the last night went about as well as it could. Like those guys, those guys did, those guys stood up. and, you know, were praised and whatever that means, like, they got in and got out.

The three players who were not seen at the speech, but were in D.C. were, of course, Matthews, Clayton Keller, Dylan Larkin. So they did get some kind of head start going back and rejoining their teams. The other element there, yeah, as Sean, you mentioned this, was Connor Hellbuck getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which it's a very funny list. And it is like, you know, it's politicized to some extent on both sides. Because you do see people who are, you know, aligned with whether it's, whether it was Biden or Obama or George W. Bush or or Trump now. It is, it's a, it's a very, it's a very funny list. Like one of the athletes that Trump gave the Medal of Freedom of 2 during his first term was Roger Penske. It was, it was a NASCAR driver. He was like a business owner now. So it is. It is a pencil file, man. It is, it is pretty funny. That's, that's it.

Hellibuck is like outside of Katie Ledecky, the swimmer, who got it during Biden's, during Biden's term. Connor Hellibuck is like very literally the only athlete, like in his prime athlete to receive this. Like it's been guys who've gotten it after they've retired. It's been guys who've gotten it for contributions, you know, like larger contributions to society outside sport like Jackie Robinson and what have you.

But, you know, Tiger Woods got it. He was he's this is late period Tiger Woods. We saw Magic Johnson get it during the Biden administration. Like this typically does not go to a guy who's currently in the moment the best in the world at his athletic job. So I think that is kind of kind of a funny twist here. Like he is outside the normal realm of the of metal of freedom recipients. I just wanted to do, does he wear it? Does he wear it during games?

Does he get painted onto his helmet? I have a feeling now what will happen is any. time we fire up for a sports center hit and maybe we have to like be a little harsh on the Jets for some reason it's like there it is presidential medal of freedom right like and and let's call a spade a spade man like they don't win that game without Connor Hellbuck playing the way that he did did empty net or not like McKinnon empty net aside sure but part of that is McKinnon was probably spooked by how well the guy was playing so he had to rush that shot because if he takes that shot a million more times. He's scoring a million. He could take that shot for 24 hours in a row,

and he won't miss it once. But he missed it on that one occasion. Why? Because the goalie was that good. It is interesting. If you look at the list of athletes, you know, even like more recently that I've won it, whether it's Jordan, it's Kareem. I think if you go back a little further, Yogi Berra, like there's some crazy, it's such a difference of names. Trump gave it to Babe Ruth during his first, during the first administration because Babe Ruth hadn't, it's, it's a, it's a very, it's a very, very funny.

Like, all, all very accomplished people, but like the order in which they've gotten it has been, has been very funny. Who do we think was in on that decision? Like, what does that look like where you're sitting around? Because I'm assuming it started with, we should give this award to somebody from the UST. And then is it, you know,

they're looking. at the list. Okay, Jack Hughes scored the goal. Quinn Hughes led the team. I'm just saying, I feel like Matthew Kuchuk is kicking over tables right now. 100%. He didn't get this one. Because, man, that is...

He's paid his dues. He's on the presidential committee for physical fitness or whatever it is. I'm calling it right now, because I'm assuming there'll be some sort of ceremony for Connor Ellibook to get this the thing, and I don't know when that happens. I'm going to

assume Matthew McCruch finds a way to get in on that photo one. Yeah, something tells me he'll find a way to do that too. Yeah. Yeah, Frankie, we haven't talked really since the conclusion of the gold medal game. Let's talk about Hella Buck, honestly.

Because I think that sort of speaks to how good Hallibuck was in the gold medal game was that an old guy watching it on TV was like, yeah, this guy's pretty good. In his capacity, he gave him, you know, second highest civilian award an American received. Like, I don't think you could sit there and say that the Americans truly, you know, dominated that game or outplayed Canada and they put together the perfect roster.

Like, I don't think you can say that. But what you can say is that, you know, the American team looked the way it was supposed to. what I mean by that is there was no one player that was head and shoulders above everyone else. Like they wanted to build a team where everyone sort of contributes and everyone slots into the right spot and at the end of the day they win the game. Well, they did do that because they won and Connor Hellebuck was at the forefront of it. And if you look at it, you're like, was Matthews great? He was good, especially early in the game.

Was Jack Hughes great? Well, he scored the game winner, but it wasn't like he, you know, was rolling things. over and dominant in that game. You know, so on and so forth. Eichel, Kachucks, like go up and down the lineup. You're like, there's not, even Quinn Hughes, for that matter. It wasn't like it was their game

or anything like that. It was the Hellabuck game and the players all slaughtered in correctly. And to be honest with you guys, I think, yeah, I'm a Canadian. I, of course, would love to see Canada win something like that. Would love to see Connor McDavid win something like that. This is good. Like, it's good that the Americans won.

I'm sorry, you will not convince me otherwise because rivalries are built on both teams having success. Rivalries are not built on we just dominate you all the time no matter what. It's not a rivalry at that point. And the Americans, quite honestly, were due to win one of these, right? Like, their program has developed so much. They lost in, you know, 2010. They lost in 2002. You know, they've won not this year, but the prior two world juniors, they've won those.

They've won the men's worlds last year. Like, this was coming. The Americans were going to win something like this. And now they did. And it's not like you have to have some big referendum on the state of hockey in Canada. You don't because you probably win that game nine times out of 10. But it's great for the rivalry, man. Like, we're not sitting here in Canada just talking about, you know, it's our game and come knock us off.

It's like, no, we got work to do here because these guys can win in any kind of situation now. So I think it is a good thing that they won. Mac and do you agree? Do you also think this is a good thing? I'm not going to say it's a good thing, but I will agree with Frankie's larger point. Yes, this is, at some point it's not a rivalry when it's the same team winning over and over again.

And in a sense, and now I'm talking purely from the hockey side. Forget all the nonsense afterwards. This played out just about as well as it couldn't for the NHL. Because first of all, you got an exciting game. You got the big dramatic moment that they can play over and over again. You've got the iconic image Jack Hughes with the teeth knocked out, draped in the flag.

We'll see that a trillion times over the next few decades. And also, from a Canadian perspective, you've got people chomping at the bit for another shot at it now because they feel like, hey, man, we had the best team. And it, you know, it didn't play out. And look, I've seen people say, oh, they got goalie. Yeah, you got goalie by the best goalie in the world. And we all knew coming into this tournament and the last one

and that the goal tend to get for Team USA was going to play. And it did this time. And the goalie's part of the team. So to say, well, we got goalie, this isn't, you know, this isn't some obscure guy coming out of nowhere, suddenly has 60 saves. this is the best in the world playing like the best in the world. But it's, you certainly don't.

There's like, there's like a desire, I feel like to compare it to Elvis Merslaken's or, you know, it doesn't. It's, it's, if you want to,

Chris, Chris, good loves kiss. I mean, I had the wrong laughing goalie. Or like Ron Tugnut making 65 saves for a crappy. This is Donnie. That's not what this does.

In 1998, if any. Yeah. And that was, and has, I mean, that check team were more. certain war of underdogs going into the tournament

than Team USA. But if anything, that's what it is. And not to spoil anything, but I've got a piece coming up in a couple of days where Jesse Granger and I are going to look at this and say, okay, coming out of the Olympics, let's reevaluate on Carter Hellebock. Where does he now fit on the all-time list, or at least on the modern list? Like, because, you know, we, there's sort of been that holy trinity of Wahasic Broder is he starting to knock on that door. Now that he's got the goal to go with the mezzanism, the Hart trophy and all of this doesn't have the cup, though, and you go on down the debate.

But, no, I mean, anybody who says, like to say, oh, it's, you know, it was just a goalie. That'd be like if Connor McDavid had a hatrick in Canada wins three to two and an American. said, ah, we just, you had one guy had a good game. One guy got hot for a game. Yeah, one guy the best skater in the world. He's part of the team. He's the guy the whole team's built around. This is who the Americans built their team around.

And the plan worked to perfection. Give him credit. And listen, I think Binnington had himself a really good game. Like, he made a number of saves. I think of the one against Quinn Hughes in overtime. It's like, that gives Canada a chance to win. And I'm not going to dissect the goal again because everyone's done it a million. in different times. But, you know, you talk about Connor Hellebuck, and now he's got all these

great accolades. The one thing, I guess, if we're going to nitpick here, it's not a small thing, though, like, can you steal a series in the playoffs at some point? Because all these guys that you're talking about, whether, you know, let's go recently, right? If it's Bobrovsky or it's Vasilevsky, like, they've stolen series for teams. And he stole a game. Mind you, it was a massive game. but at some point you need to steal a playoff series. That's what they do. Now, it's not going to define his career because he's done so much and has accomplished so much as an individual.

But that's one thing I guess I would nitpick for. I tell you, I agree with that, by the way, frankly. That's a reasonable ask because guys do it. Guys simply do it. It's not like we're asking too much. And I think the other thing that if we're talking about this bigger picture overarching hockey conversation, Canada is not entitled to win every single event playing hockey.

We're just not. And it doesn't happen. And it's the same way that, you know, Sweden is not entitled to be a top three team just because they're Sweden and they're loaded with NHL stars. Like, I think Sweden would be having a conversation of saying, you know, are country's passing us? Like, are we, are we worse than we actually should be? Um, whereas Canada's having the conversation like, okay.

Um, clearly a lot of people are. a lot of countries are catching up to us. Like I think you look at it from different countries' point of view and you could see where their conversations are headed. Yeah. And look, I'm old enough to remember in the 90s, Canada loses

to Team USA in the 96th World Cup in what was the first time TVOSA had ever won a best on best. First time anyone other than Canada or Russia had won one. And then they go to Nagano and they just bomb out there. don't even win a medal. And at that point, it really did feel like,

is there, like, is this a game in crisis? Are we, you know, and we had, we had summits and stuff like that to really talk about, like, what is happening, are we losing our grip? And that contributed to the overwhelming pressure in 2002 to go and win gold. And then, of course, they finally did. And it felt like the dam broke and everything was good again.

And, of course, the team barely, the program barely looked back from there. It doesn't feel like it's the same here. Certainly on the men's side, even on the women's, you could look at this Olympics and say, okay, same result, the exact same result. Team USA beats Team Canada 2-1 in overtime. And yet, given how that tournament went, and given how the last year or so is gone,

you're looking at that going, man, is Team USA starting to pull away from Team Canada a little bit? And especially when you look at the youth on that roster and you look at how dominant they were, how tough they weren't even score on. Boy, you're sitting there going, man, this might be the start of a new era. I don't feel like it is that in the men's side. This is, as Frankie said, just a case of a team that was right there all along was one play, one shift, one shot away on a few other occasions.

They finally got that play before Canada got it. Okay, that's hockey. And it doesn't, you know, it doesn't create a crisis. it doesn't it creates disappointment and sometimes you need some disappointment to fuel the next chapter of the story and what happened to cause this crisis in 1998 it's lost to dominic hashek yes you know like like i think there may be some lesson to learn there too about an extra time about overreact overreaction to one game loss is to the best goaling on earth because it happened then and it happened now and it doesn't need to mean anything other than

than the result in the moment, right? It doesn't need to lead to anything else necessarily. I think that goes both ways. Like, if you're an American hockey fan, just enjoy this one. Don't worry about how things are set up for 2030 in the French Alps and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, it might not happen again.

We know you can go 20 years in between best-on-best tournament victories or 46 years between gold medals, because it just happened. You never know. So enjoy it. Don't make too much of it. We'll see it the World Cup, I guess. And maybe what we need is somebody else to win in 28 or 30,

even Sweden or Finland or somebody. And then we're really back to the mix of, man, this is anyone's school. And let's just be happy that it didn't end in a shootout. That at least three on three is a different sport than five on five. Everyone knows what they were playing. everyone had like plenty of lead up time to wrap their heads around it. And it's funny if you watch the clips from that 98 shootout, like you could just tell it's such a foreign thing for all those guys

because all they did was skate as fast as they could in on Hasick. Like every guy was like the old thing where you got to generate speed on the breakway, right? And they all did it. And meanwhile now we see guys take 30 seconds from the time they touch the puck to the time that they shoot it almost. Just a very different, very different thing if you go back. and watch those clips. Quickly, Frankie.

What kind of three-on-three player was prime Frankie Corrado? Scared. Scared. Yeah, yeah. Just like, once I pass the threshold of like 25 seconds being like, I got to find a way to get off because I don't want to be hemmed out for a minute and a half. Then he could have just gotten double shifted and played for a minute and a half and whatever. That's how Canadians roll apparently.

Yeah, I remember one time in Belleville, one time in Belleville, we were playing against Grand Rapids and I tried to do, I saw like one of my forwards streaking, right? And I'm like, oh, I'm going to go bank job off the end boards and like try and get it to him. Iceing. Coach is losing it on the bench. Troy May is like, like afterwards, goes, what the, are you thinking out there? Bank job in three on three? Get your ass off the ice. Thank God. Frankie's dudes and the not dudes of the Olympics are next. We'll be right back.

We're back. It's Mack and do, Crado, Gentilly. We're picking through. We're picking the carcass of Olympic hockey because it's just that important, even though it's February 25th. Frankie, pick some of your fellows from this one. These are the dudes, Sean.

I got dudes and I got maybe guys that were not dudes. Like maybe a little disappointing. You had a moment that you'd want back, but, you know, it's pretty obvious who the big boys were, but maybe I'll sort through them in order and let me know what you guys think. You want to start dudes or not dudes first? It's good dudes. All right.

Coming in at number five, I have packaged both Hughes brothers together at number five, Jack and Quinn. And Quinn was unbelievable. He wasn't there at the Four Nations. Jack was clearly not himself last year at the Four Nations. he got filtered down lower in that lineup, didn't feel like he was a factor. And both these guys had overtime winners in big moments

and kind of showed that like, wait a second, when we're on this team, it's different. And it's a big deal. And we came through in big moments. So I got the Hughes Brothers at number five. At number four, I have my guy, Uri Slavkovsky, who Yarmir Yager is now saying he reminds me of me.

And that hopefully is not just saying, the guy's got a big caboose and he sticks it out. I was going to say, is that because of your ice left cause he's ass? Is it possible that that's why Yonkers say that is. That is not just an aesthetic thing. That is because this guy has found something. It's the meaning behind the caboose. Exactly.

It's how you use it. And I think we've seen this sort of percolating now this year where he's not just the guy that's going to retrieve the puck for the skill players. He's carrying it. He's making it. the plays. He's driving a line from the wing. He's playing with a little physicality, more than a little physicality. And he was the most important player for his team going into the tournament. He was the most important player for the success that they had, a team that on paper was outmatched so many

different ways. And he was awesome. So he's at number four. At number three, Maclin Celebrini. Who? If you don't know, now you know how good this kid truly is. Like, if you're up one night and you can't sleep, put on a San Jose Sharks game at 10.30 p.m. Eastern time because he'll be worth it. And I think what comes to the forefront of this is, you know, that's a team with a lot of superstars, a lot of older superstars. And he was maybe supposed to be just like a complimentary piece. When it was all said and done, he was second in tournament and points. And it just wasn't about the points. It was about the way he got him.

It was the way he was stealing pucks off guy sticks. is the way he was slippery, getting away from checks. Like, he was awesome. And now everyone knows. It's been so wild. And I know we don't need to relitigate, Celebrini all the way, because we've talked about him plenty,

whether it's three of us or wherever else. The last three months, we've seen him go, three months, four months, six months, however long, short amount of time. We've seen him go from maybe Mixe Olympic team to, yeah, he's definitely going to be there Whereas if nothing else, you keep him along because he's, because he can play on a bottom six and he's capable of contributing there. To like, no, he's definitely in the lineup every day.

To, oh, he's actually on the first. He's with McDavid. To, oh, he is an active participant and looks completely, completely in place, you know, as one of the two or three best players in any game that he played. It's incredible. Even a month ago, it felt like, yes. Like he was sitting in the waiting room with a few other guys, with Connor Bedard and a few other guys waiting to someday go join the McDavid-McKinnon conversation. The Olympics starts and suddenly he was knocking at the door.

And now the door is wide open and he's in the room with those guys hanging his posters up and everything. Because he's moved right on in. That's kind of what I mean. Like in November, December, you know, I worked on a celebration. anything and I talked to a lot of people about it. And their stance on him back then was like, man, this kid is going to be a factor at the Olympics because his game ports down to the bottom six. It's going to be great to watch him play. Like he's going to contribute there because he's that kind of player and he's complete and he can contribute in a bunch of different ways and he can do

exactly what that team needs him to do. Like people were excited about that. And then what we ended up getting from December to February, the leap that he made in that amount of time, whether it was just in perception or in the eyes of the coaching staff where they were, you know, ready to give him those opportunities is incredible. Like there was already optimism about the guy, right? Then he starts on the first line and then levels up even from there. It's just we can't, I still can't say enough about what we saw from him over the last few weeks. It's something, man.

And you know what? In 2030, maybe we're talking about Celebrini. being the best player on the team. Like, that's probably not a far-fetched thing. He was already the second best player on the team right now. And I'll get to number two. I'm just going to say that I don't have Connor McDavid because Conner McDavid is in a different stratosphere right now.

I'm talking about guys that, like, maybe had a moment that, like, you weren't expecting or just, you know, we know what Connor McDavid is. He was the MVP of the tournament. He lost again. That's a whole bigger picture thing. So just keep that in mind. At number two, I have the. Slovakian goaltender, Halavai, who plays for the Iowa Wild and has some of the worst

numbers in the American hockey league. And if you looked at that, you said, they're screwed. They don't have anyone in that. And this kid, for whatever reason, was such a dude over there. Like, I can't imagine, like, I don't know if he'll ever put together a run of hockey like that ever again. I hope he does. Like, I hope, you know, maybe scenery change, whatever.

But, man, Slovakia doesn't get a fourth place finish without this guy. This guy was unbelievable. Like, was he even registered anywhere on your radar? No, that he was the reason not to, well, not him necessarily, but you said it. Slovakia's reason, goaltending was the reason not to believe in them. You're like, okay, they got a star in Slavkovsky. They've got some, you know, NHL players on the back end. They've got the guys, they've got the, like, Dvorskies and,

regendos and guys like there were people in the mix right but at the start of the tournament you're like oh don't don't then i got a goalie and then hollavi steps up that Sean that's like the exact that's the guy that we're talking about yes if you lose if the united states goes out and loses to slovakia in the semifinals because halavai makes you know 38 saves and it ends up in it ends up being a two one game that's the guy here about this sucks we got we we we got goal lead, it's like maybe kind of unfair because he just, you know, had the run of his life there.

But man, yeah, he's, that's what it's about. I think guys, like that's stepping up is what makes tournaments like this so much fun. And I think number one should be fairly obvious, but this person had a narrative surrounding him that he could never do

it in the big game. Like, he could never do it in the playoffs, and he still needs to steal a playoff series, but we've talked about that already. It's Connor Hellebuck. Last year in the Four Nations, Jordan Bennington stared down the ice and he said, I'm better than you when the pressure's on. And this year, Connor Hellebuck said, I got it. I'm going to make the stick save. I'm going to make the two breakaway saves on McDavid and Celebrini.

I'm going to make three or four saves on a five on three for a minute and 11 seconds. And you got me last year. You're not going to get me this year. And that is dude-esque if I can ever think of anyone that was like, Like, watch this. What a week. Gold medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom,

and now the Frankie Corrado Medal of Dudum. Dudeum, yeah. It's like every day brings a greater honor for this guy. We should stand, stand and applaud. Yes. Way to go. Way to go,

Connor. Again, Matthew Kachuk just kicking over a trash fan right now. Yeah. In their, in their sweaters as, as Hellel Buck has the dude of the weak medal hang around. just kicking over the trash can that his brother lives in and just oh nothing gets you to the top of a list like that then I went over Jordan Bennington you know well especially especially with what

happened last year all right I'll rifle through the top five call it like not dudes or not dude moments or disappointments whatever you want to call it but I do have one observation coming off the dudes list let's rifle through this one first number five on not dudes Canada's decor could have used a little more puck moving ability back there. Like it was a parent. Say you want to Evan Bouchard on this team, Frank. Say it. I will say that I never said to have Evan Bouchard on this team, but after watching some of the

stuff that happened there on the right side of the ice, it couldn't hurt them. I'm sorry. I will gladly admit that. Having Bouchard there, having Matthew Schaefer, or having Jacob Chikrin, take your peck, one of those guys or two of those guys helps that decor. You mean you didn't enjoy watching Colton Braco bomb shots from the point? I think general vicinity of the net over and over. He did Cody C.C. Justice.

He did Cody C.C. justice for the shot in the bubble. Jim Houston. And he missed the net by a mile. All right. Number four. I don't know if this is controversial. I don't know if it's a hot take. But when you miss a wide open net and then you are hesitant on the play that becomes the game winner in a span of like 30 minutes of real time.

It's not dude stuff, man. So Nathan McKinnon's number four. I know he had the big goal, but I don't know. When that happens, it's fair to critique that. I'm glad you said it. I needed, I felt like I needed backed up. That was in the moment after that game, after the gold medal game, that's in the immediate aftermath,

I was like, catastrophe for McKinnon. Like that more than, maybe more, maybe more than the game, the game, the game. Maybe more than the United States just won a gold medal. The thing that was on my mind was the way McKinnan played. I could not believe it.

Yeah. And not only did that stuffy not make it home, I think you went into the trainer's room and you grab the knife or scissors and you stabbed the thing a million times. Like I think that stuffy like just is, is it blown into a, it's gone. I saw that.

I saw that coming when they did it after the, after the women's game, after the women's final. And they, you know, double back and then make them take another. Like they have the tray of metals and then go back for the tray of stuffies. I was like, someone,

someone's getting caught on camera after the men's game. And if it's Canada, I think we all kind of knew who it was going to be. All right. Number three, the Florida guys for Team Canada. I think if you looked at that and you said, man, we got the guys that are like just gritty and scrappy and big game, big moment guys that are just going to wear you down. I kind of expected more from the Florida guys. Like that's Reinhardt got filtered down lower in the lineup. Sam Bennett took some ill-advised penalties.

Brad Marchand was clearly not 100 percent, couldn't play. extremely hurt. I thought the Florida guys were a disappointment for Canada. It doesn't take away from their legacies and what they've done in the past. But in this tournament, I didn't think it was, I didn't think it was a factor for them. I think you could say something similar about Matthew Kachak on the U.S. side, too. I don't think he was much of a factor either. Right.

A lot of miles, a lot of miles on those tires, man. Like, they played a lot of hockey over the last couple years. Number two, officiating. I didn't like the officiating. I think there was some terrible non-calls. If you want to, don't be a factor in a game, make the appropriate calls. Like, how do you not see that there's six players on the ice when Slovakia? Four guys, you're telling me, didn't see Chequia go down the ice with six players and score a goal.

And then it's not consequential in the gold medal game because a million other things happened that led to Canada losing. But it's the most clear as day, too many men on the ice penalty that's ever presented itself. And you didn't make the call. Why? I think that's fair. Why didn't you make the call? because you don't have the stones to do it because it was a big moment

and you didn't have the stones to do it. I'm sorry. I've never heard you come out against officiating this hard, dude. Well, whatever. I love it. I love it. You sound like Macon do today. And my number one not dude of the tournament,

the Swedish head coach. Oh, yes. He did Sam Halam, or however you want to say his name, did a disservice to all the European coaches that are trying to get to the NHL and become head coaches, he torpedoed it all for them. Because he had no idea

had to handle all those players, whether it was Rasmus Dahlin or Philip Foresburg or Oliver Echman Larson, he set European coaches back a decade at least with the way that he handled those players. Rasmus Dahlian too

said after, when he came back to Buffalo, I'm not going to try to quote him here, so I'm not going to I'm not going to bother with that. But like, he was basically like, yeah, I was, I was, I was, I was fine during, during that elimination game. Like, got to ask the coach, like, why I didn't play that much. Like, what, what is this dude doing?

And he's a guy, too, over the last, however long, over the last six, six months or 12 months, very, very talkative guy has, has a lot, has a lot of media friends, pops up frequently as, as a person who knows what he's doing, I think. and I saw it plenty to the opposite to speak to the opposite over the last couple weeks. I love that.

I love that pick, dude. That's a good one. I got to throw this out here, Frank, because I love all the picks. I grew with all of them, but you got me, you got me a little excited on the dudes,

and we all knew Hellebuck had to be there, but when you were talking about the guy who had the reputation couldn't win the big one, I was starting to link forward. I thought we were going to get the Austin Matthews. Yeah.

Was he close? Was he in the running to making the list? Because he led the team in scoring among forwards, and he was a defensive demon in the gold medal game. And the Hughes had told us that we're not allowed to say that Austin Matthews isn't a winner anymore. Number six on the dude list, top ten? Like, help me out.

Honestly, like, if I had an honor, Mention's list. It would be like Saros. It would be Leonardo Junoni, who the Edmonton-Oilers should be on the horn with and see if he can win a Stanley Cup for them. He's as old as I am. Because this, this guy has like a very decorated international goalie. The Matthews thing, I find fascinating, right? Because if you think about captain of the team, face of the team, team wins a gold medal. Generally, you're like, well, that guy must have been a huge factor, right? Like he must have been a rock star. he kind of fits what the USA was all about, where it was like there really didn't feel like there was one player

that was that much better than anyone else. And maybe that's the key for Austin Matthews. Maybe this whole thing, Sean, of like, you know, there's three or four big guys at the top and Matthews is going to be so overwhelmingly good. He's good. But maybe that's, this is the kind of situation that lends itself to Austin Matthews having success. And it's not been the case in Toronto.

I thought he was good. You know, I didn't think that Austin Matthews' performance per se defined him winning and USA winning, if that makes sense. Like, you know what I'm trying to say? Like, he was good, but he wasn't that much better than, he wasn't better than the Hughes brothers for me. It wasn't better than Hellebuck, but he was good. It wasn't the Austin Matthews moment.

Wasn't the Austin Matthews performance that won it for them? That's it, right? I mean, you can't nitpick him. he did everything that they would ask him to do on both sides of the puck. You know, especially in that gold medal game, where he still, he had a point on the first goal and was probably the best defensive player maybe in the game, certainly had some big plays.

But was there an Austin Matthews moment? Was there an Austin Matthews shift, an Austin Matthews game in this tournament? No. And, you know, if you're looking for somebody, who isn't a goalpender to just put a team on his back and say, I'm going to be head and shoulders better than everyone.

You're looking in the wrong place when it's team Yose or team Canada or something like that because there's just so much talent. And maybe that just means that you can't draw conclusions. But yeah, this, like we're not going to look back on this team and go, this was the Austin Matthews team that won

goal. Should we have expected that? Is that way too high a place to put the bar? I don't know. To take it back to the discussion we had in the first segment, I really feel like among Leaf fans, you looked at the way that tournament played out, and it was like, all right, there's a little bit of redemption there.

Everybody's been hammering this guy. He hasn't been having a great season, certainly in the playoffs, and here he is, big spotlight, and he had a very good tournament, and I think there were a lot of good feelings about Austin Matthews in the Toronto fan base, some of which were probably squander by some of the decisions that happened

in the aftermath of that game. But he was good. He was very good. He almost disappointed everybody because if you're in the narrative business, you didn't get the big moment where you could say that's it. The script has been flipped.

But also if you're the sort of person who sits back and wants to blame Austin Matthews for everything that goes right or wrong, you didn't get anything close to that either. Yeah, it was right in the middle. It was right in the middle. And I will say this, man, seeing Austin Matthews smile after winning the gold medal, I'm like, that's a, that's a dude who's lost a lot, man.

I didn't know he could do that. He looked, I've never seen that smile on him. Seriously. Like, not since he was an 18-year-old kid, maybe. And he didn't even smile that much scoring four goals in his NHL debut. Like, this is, there would have been a lot of, like, mental and emotional pain this guy has gone through. He definitely cares.

and the fact that he won good for him. Like, I'm happy for him. And now two years in a row, not to make it all about Toronto, but Mitch Marner won last year. Mitch Marner won last year. Austin Matthews won this year. They can do it.

They can win. Just for some reason, it never happened together. You know, we got to deal. We need to get Austin to just brush up on his three-on-three skills. He needs to spend the next four years developing those.

And maybe then he can score a goal in an elimination game. And we can put them at the top of lists like this. I think that's the key. Yeah. Frank, you're back to work this week, man. Where are you going?

It feels weird. Like I'm prepping my notes for a game. Crazy. What the, what the heck? Crazy. You know? So yeah, I'm back in, actually, pretty good showdown tomorrow night. Habs, Islanders, Demidoff, Schaefer, Hudson, rookie of the year last year.

Schaefer, potentially could be two, you know, back-to-back years having defensemen, rookie of the year. I think it's going to be pretty cool to see all three of those guys on the ice at the same time. Is this the first island? the first Islanders Haves games since the Dodson trade as well? Is this? I believe this is the first time, I believe it is the first time both these two teams are playing. And I don't know, for some reason, Habs and Islanders fans love to go at it.

I've seen that too. Yeah. It'll be fun, man. Glad we got the NHL game to talk about, like I said. Who needs Olympic hockey when we can do Habs Canadians on a Thursday night with Frankie? That's what it's all about. All right, boys. See it on there up, brother. All right, there goes Frankie.

Sean McIndo, you're always at the top of my dude list. That's sweet. Do I have to say it back now, or is it off? No, I love you, say it back. What have we learned? It's been so long. What have we learned, Sean? It has been a long time.

You know what was a long time was, do you remember the trade freeze? Right before the Olympics started, and we had the, you know, the Art. Pannar and Blockbuster and there were a couple other moves. And then I remember at the time going, you know, it's going to be fun is when that frees lips in a couple of weeks, it's going to be like another trade that you're going to get out of all this action. All these GMs have two or three weeks to do their incredibly difficult jobs and to really evaluate and to talk.

I mean, they've got no games to watch. They got nothing to do other than hang out in the group chat and pull off some deals. and then midnight, Sunday night comes and goes and nothing happens immediately. I guess these guys were all just watching the games. I guess they were...

Oh no, wait. You're... You're doing us here, by the way. Yeah, yeah. What they were doing. We need like a couple hours of bumper time before the record drops. All I'm saying is they were kicking tires.

They were, what, listening but not shopping, I think, is what? They were doing all this stuff that you do that these guys, and they're incredibly difficult jobs. I don't think people understand how complicated it is. I mean, yeah, in the NBA, you can pull off of, you know, the superstar looks grumpy in practice, so you pull off a four-way trade with the, you know,

that is done by lunchtime. Right. Trades are hard, no. But it's hard to do this. And so they did next to nothing, although, in fairness, we did eventually get a pretty decent size deal. So one for, you know, I guess two for 32. Good job. Yes.

And as it relates to the trade you just alluded to, Sean, that's, this is actually a bit of information I did, I did pick up. I learned something tangible here. It's from the great Bob Grove, who's a penguin's historian who's been part of the Pittsburgh media ecosystem for forever. No one knows more about the Pittsburgh Penguins. Grover is like one of my favorite social media follows just because he drops tidbits like this on the regular. And I saw this yesterday, and it blew my mind. This is after Kyle Dubus and the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Sam Gerard in a second. second round pick from Colorado for Brett Kulak, which is a trade I'm sure Sean and I will discuss

shortly, but the way I want to frame this to you, Sean. I'll just read Bob's tweet here. Kyle Dubus on Sunday hits two years, nine months since being hired. The most trades made by a penguin's GM in his first two years and nine months on the job, and then there's a list. It's a list of six of six different Penguins GMs who've been in that chair for at least that long. How many trades do you think Kyle Dubus has made in the last two years and nine months? Oh, boy. I mean, he's a reasonably active guy. I will say 10 trades.

You are low. Okay. What's the answer? 41. Wow. Across the board, if you include all trades of, you know, picks and minor leaders. and whatever. 41 trades in less than three years on the job.

How many in that amount of time span did Jim Rutherford make? Trader Jim. Nobody moves players around like GMJR. How many trades did he make in his first years? I'm assuming it would be higher. The way you're framing it, I feel like I'm getting set up here. But I'll go 50 for good old trader. Jim.

20. Kyle Dubis has made double the amount of trades as Jim Rutherford in the same amount of time after initially taking over the Pittsburgh job. That is mind-bought. Like, we had a gym when I was covering the Penguins, Joey and I just had a Jim Rutherford trade tracker that we would update periodically just to keep track of everything. It was like an historical thing going all the way back.

And the premise was just like, look at all this, look at all the big deals. medium deal, small ones, like Trader Jim, always at it. Kyle Dubas has doubled him. And he's also,

by the way, at the helm of the team that is in playoff position, like fairly comfortably. We'll see it. We'll see what happens there with Sidney Crosby's injury. Yeah,

I was going to say, did anything happen in the Olympics that would change that? Do we know what Crosby's injury is? Like, have they? Yes. Just found it out, actually.

What did we? Professor Dref, dropping, Oh, look at this. Dropin news bombs. in the dock. Sydney Crosby will miss a minute of four weeks with the lower body injury. So that sounds about right.

Okay. That looked like a four to six week injury when you saw it play out. That looked like we're not playing. We're not going to pretend to be doctors here, but it looked like it looked like a sprain of some sort. I'll pretend to be a doctor. Do you think, especially now that we know that it was a serious injury, it's going to miss significant time, Do you think he was ever really a candidate to play, or do you think that whole thing was a decoy that he was never going to play?

Or do you think he's such a psycho that he was legitimately going to go out there and try to Lindsay Vaughn the gold medal game? I kind of think he was going to try to Lindsey Vaughn the gold medal game if he could have. And, you know, whatever. He's the kind of person, this has been said plenty of times, where, like, A, he's a psycho who's going to try to play, but B, he's a reasonable enough human being where if he's not gonna lie.

Like I'm sure he understood the stakes and realized that if he was at 35% that it was a better move to have Sam bet it in there or whoever. But I don't doubt the sincerity of the attempt, at least. You say, all right, this is gonna knock me out for a month. Can I play 11 minutes on it in a gold medal game?

I do believe that he tried. But I'm also not remotely surprised at the outcome here. I think it's certainly closer to best case than worse for Pittsburgh, though, honestly, based on the way that injury looked initially. Like, that was, you saw that off the bat. You're like, four to six months, six to eight months,

and, you know, they have, I guess the upshot here, and this goes back to the job that Dubas has done. I think they have, this sounds crazy, but they have the cushion based on their performance in the first chunk of the season to make this stand up. Like, they have given, themselves enough rope to at least potentially theoretically possibly be able to deal without Sid for the next month. Whether that happens is certainly enough for debate. And I think there is a

real possibility that these guys come out and lose 11 or 14 and then, you know, whatever. But it's a testament to the job, I think, that Davis has done so far. And we haven't even talked about the trade yet. What'd you think? I thought it was crazy. Like, I think I would have traded Sam Gerard. for Brett Kulak straight up. I think they're similarly effective players, even though they're not, even though different player types. I think it makes more sense for the abs than maybe we initially thought

because they clearly were trying to clear up space, about $2.5 million off the cap, so they can go out and do something else. But just for it to be Gerard plus a second is kind of crazy. It doesn't mean it's a bad trade for Colorado. And Myrtle said as much in his trade grade, I, which I totally agree with.

Like, I get why Colorado did it. I think Kulak fits what they're trying to do, and he takes stuff off the cap. You know, it makes it possible for them to add elsewhere. But if your Pittsburgh is a A plus plus plus, and it's similar to a lot of other things, honestly, that Dubas has done on the job, you know?

He's adding picks and amassing assets and, you know, hasn't kind of completely gut the team to do it. Impressive work. What a GM? I wish my team had a guy. I know. Well, that's, that's what I was going to say. Do you ever get up and think?

If only the Leafs had a guy who were so bold and so economical. Maybe someday. I feel like Brad Truliving has thought about making a trade 41 times. Are we sure about that? Two months or whatever, and that's close. It's a hard job. Is he, where did trades or hard come from? Is that, was he?

That's GMs in general. That is the GM and we may be the poster boy for trades are hard though. We just bought it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, we would have traded this third liner for a fourth round pick, but we only started thinking about it in November, and that's just not. Like, Sean, I don't know if you realize this, but there's this thing in the NHL called the salary cap. What? What?

Just, it's so tough, these guys. What game are you going to watch tonight? I'm going to watch The Leafs in the Lightning. Oh, yeah, right, I forgot. the whole time. And I'm going to watch Brandon Hagle probably score four goals and I'm going to scream at my TV about

where was that a few things ago. Maybe they should have put Brennan Hagel out there for three and three. Couldn't have gone any worse. I guess I'll watch, I guess I'll watch the Kings if I'm up that late

since obviously, as we both know, no East Coast sports writers ever say up to watch Western conference talking and it simply does not happen. No. King's Gold Night's watch in the morning. TiVo.

That was an old, right. As soon as I said it, Christ. As soon as I said it, I said, that's way too old a reference, but my good buddy SG won't call me on it,

so it's okay. I tell you, I think we're pretty, uh, I think we're pretty diplomatic over that stuff. At my age, you're lucky I didn't tell you to pop a tape in the VCR 4M.

figure out how to nobody ever figured that out by the one. I'm 40 now, man. I'm catching up to you. It's fine. Yeah, I'll do Panarin. It's Kings versus Golden Knights. Panarin's making his debut at L.A. That's an interesting one. They're going to need more from him than they thought, because Kevin Fiala is out for God knows how long.

Thank you, Olympics. That could do what else is up for you for this week. You know, I teased it already, but Jesse and I are going to try to figure out where does Connor Hellibuck rank in the modern era right now is he knocking on the door of the Holy Trinity is he

nudging Ken Dryden aside is he already past the Grant fears and Eddie Belvoir's of the world it's we're going to go back and forth I don't know if it's going to be a debate we'll find out I think I'm sure Jesse Jesse will rank him highly that Jesse loves all his goal pet.

Oh, man. So much. And I'm going to force him to rank them a little bit, which is like forcing a parent to rank their kids in the sense that they don't want to do it. But secretly, they do have a ranking ready to go. I just got to get it out of it. I got to do that immediate post game with Jesse after the gold medal game. It was, it was like watching someone talk about their child.

Just glowing. So much pride. child, grandchild, beloved, beloved niece and nephew, perhaps. Whoever you love the most, I think, is what Jesse looked like talking about Connor Hallibuck. So yeah, that'll be interesting. It's another honor for Connor Hallibuck to add to the list this week. How do we factor a presidential medal of freedom and being the number one dude? I know.

I was talking primarily about number one dude. And then who knows where he lands on a list made by Sean Nackadoon. Jesse Granger. No, there truly is no higher honor for an American civilian than either of those things. All right, buddy. Thank you. We'll talk next week. Frank, you'll be back. Thank God. We thank him. We thank producer Jeff. I'm back Thursday with SG1, Shane Golden, and Mike Russo. And who knows who else? Enjoy the return to Venetio hockey tonight, folks. Eight games. We're back. We'll move back next week. Thanks for listening. Thank you.