The Athletic Hockey Show - Florida Panthers and Bill Zito enjoying the ride so far, Gigi Marvin on retirement and Team USA's 2022 Winter Olympic Roster

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

On the first edition of the Athletic Hockey Show USA for 2022, Craig Custance and Sean Gentille welcome Florida Panthers General Manager Bill Zito and former Olympic champion Gigi Marvin.The boys discuss the solid start to the season for the Panthers with Zito, including the MVPO caliber play from Jonathan Huberdeau, how the team has faired without Alexsander Barkov and the job that interim head coach Andrew Brunette has done, replacing Joel Queeneville behind the bench.In the second segment, the guys celebrate retirement with multiple Olympic and World Champion medallist Gigi Marvin. Gigi provides her analysis on Team USA's roster for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, what it was like to stand up to Team USA in the fight for equity and equality and who she thinks will have a monster tournament at the Olympics.As always, Craig and Sean wrap the podcast with the best segment of the show, responding to your comments, suggestions and questions from the Athletic App.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year, Sean Gentilly. Do we still say that? Ho! Ho! No, no. Wait, what? No. It's, it is 2022, the year that's going to change our lives.

I feel great. I think the last two have changed our lives. For the better, I mean, Sean. I'm coming off of a break where I've got some energy, although we never really took a break. I will say we plowed through it, showed up every Tuesday for the American edition. The only, the best edition of the Athletic Cockney Show. That is what you're listening to. My dear listener today.

We have. My dear, my dear listeners. My best friends. Especially those. A happy New Year to you and yours. Wow. We are, we are loaded up today with a great show. First guest is Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito, who,

Florida Panthers pretty good this year. They've done a nice job. Is that true? That's a true story. It's a true story. Really good. He acquired every Sam apostle. That was his first order of business on his checklist after being named GM.

Like, get Sam Bennett, get Sam Reinhart. Make sure you acquire all of them. Sines Barkov to an extension. Just writing a wave of, like high octane, good fun things going down in Florida. But you couldn't say at all. Anyways. Man, they've put up with some. bullshit too. They've done a lot of this without Barkov. They got crushed by COVID. I mean.

They were one of the early, they were one of the early, the early teams that got sewered by it, right? Well, here's what I say. Get it done early. Them and the Flaves. I, that's like, we're trying to find, like, tactful ways to say that. I feel like, we're like, tactical the way I did it. I don't, maybe we don't even have to be tactful at this point. Like the, like the Flames. And I've been, forgive me. for speaking of a Canadian team, but they're, they're, they're a great example. They've, they had 20 guys test positive or whatever. They're all fine. They're not going to have to test for the next three months or whatever it is. It's out of, it's out of sight out of mind.

They're not really going to have to worry about the taxi squad or anything like that. Like, they're, they're in the catbird seat. And there's a few, there's a few other teams like that. Right. Like to bring it back into the States, there was, I think one of the college football teams early on got, the whole team got it and there was some, I forgot who it was Oklahoma or something. It was like, hey, wait a second. Did you do that a purpose?

Like, did you just go ahead and say everyone, like, like it's like 1600s and you're passing around, whatever, like. Yeah, or a more. Less data reference. No, we can go with it with a data reference because the current, the current reference is probably, It's probably inappropriate by me. Yeah, yeah, I think, I think it's gross calculus where where you're potentially, especially in college football season, you're like potentially risking pre-vaccine and stuff.

But like, it is, it's a consideration. It has to be, right? Like, these guys, these guys aren't going to have to worry about daily tests for until the playoffs, basically. That's it. They're fine. our second guest today, two guests, because we're, again, the less John and I have to do anything. Because we hate talking.

The better, as we all know. G.G. Marvin, who recently retired G.G. Marvin, a gold medal winner for the U.S. Women's Olympic team, hockey team. Incredible career. She joins us in the second segment to talk. We're going to preview a little bit of the women's tournament. But really, the conversation was great because it was like, hey, things. still aren't great on this front in terms of promoting the women. She's like, I know.

We haven't fixed it. USA hockey, a lot of work to do still. It was, she was great. Yeah. It was a great conversation. We probably went 20 minutes longer than she wanted. No, she was, we just kept talking. It was awesome.

And I'm like, oh, that went a half hour. Yeah. We're looking at the clock. I'm like, oh, we're at minute 36 with Gigi. And she is not sick of us yet. So we should maybe have her back during the tournament. Literally. Like I want, she's got the Bobby Ryan treatment now.

That's like, that's the, um, that's the plus side of the NHL players, not being, not being in the Olympics. And this is something that we talked to her about. We flew flat, we fought outside this to her, I believe. Like, this is, it's, it's, it's the women's, it's, it's the women's tournament's show now. Like, this is it. We can, we can, we can, we can, everybody can devote much more attention to that because we

have to worry about watching, you know. NHL players from Sweden play NHL players from Finland So just get ready as the American edition I mean we are all on we are on the US train Women that's obviously our best International Hockey Program It's we're all in on and we are going to be obnoxious about it when they win gold

Just fair warning to our Canadian When? When? Of course Our goal here is to not actually say the name of a Canadian player during doing the show. Same with the NHL. I mean, it was like we need to just get these out of the way.

Although we will mention John and Huberto, who's been great when we talked to four. Right, of course. We have to, there's caveats. So we got, we got one or the other. We got a, it would be really hard. Really quick before we get to Bill,

I do want to talk about the New York Rangers who won three straight look really good. Like sneaky good. If we're pulling up points percentages, is the only way to do it right now because there's like this seven game gaps between who's, you know, they're, what are they three right now? No, they're fourth in the league.

Yeah. Florida Panthers, your Florida Panthers are two, which is. My beloved Florida Panthers behind the Carolina hurricanes. Are you buying? But seriously. Yeah, we're buying the Rangers. You buying it? I think I'm closer now than I was maybe at the start of the season.

There was a point where it seemed like they were a little bit of a, and they still are to an extent because Shistercans unbelievable. He's been fantastic, and he bailed him out consistently at the start of the season. But now he's been hurt for a stretch. George, was a net against the Oilers,

and he was fantastic. I don't know. I'm still, it's insane to say that I'm not sold on them. Like, I'm pretty sold. And my soul of them is like a top one, or top four team in the league.

I'm not sure about that. I think I need to see some more five-on-five production from them. But you watch them last night. You see that they don't, A, don't have to rely on Jusirkin every single night, which is something we've learned over the last couple weeks. You see, the Zabinajad line was unbelievable.

You see, the production that they're getting from a lot of other forwards, Chris Kreider, I said this somewhere. I feel so bad for Chris Kreider, because this was like his Olympic year. Like this is the year that a guy like him was going to have a real chance to make that roster

after not fitting in last year or over the last couple years and probably not having another chance in 2026 or whatever. Right. He's been fantastic. He's having it. As far as goal scoring is concerned,

he's having a career year. So they're great. I just, I need, I'm still, I don't know, the five on four. Five numbers made me kind of nervous, but whatever. You know, I don't feel that for Chris Kreider.

I will always remember Chris Kreider as the guy that signed his, I think it's a seven-year contract right before we discovered COVID. It was like, he, there was, do you remember that? Like, he was on the trade block and he was going to get dealt? And then he got this huge deal before the economy collapsed and everything went sideways. And he came in at a deal that he wouldn't have got, like, and I remember talking to his agent. after the fact that like they acknowledge it like this wouldn't have existed three months later.

So like as the door was closing, Chris Clyder slipped. So don't feel too bad for Chris Kreider. I don't feel too bad for Chris Kreider then. So you know what? You know what? I actually hate Chris Kreider. Okay. Well, let's let's let's jump right into the conversation with Bill Zito because he's, he's,

I've known Bill a long time and excited. I'm happy for his success in Florida. so let's have that talk right now. We are now thrilled to be joined by Bill Zito, live from Florida, from his office, GM of the Florida Panthers, who as Sean and I mentioned earlier, have what do we say,

the second best point percentage in all of the NHL? Second best points percentage in the league, baby. It's going pretty well, Bill, hey? So far, yeah, yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here. Yeah. So it's, let's, let's, We'll start with Florida, although as we were just discussing, we have a few other stories we wanted to bring up in a minute.

But maybe it seems like a little bit of time off came at a good time for you all. Like, come out of this, whatever we're calling breaks or whatever is happening right now in the world. And you've won a few in a row. Like, what are you seeing right now from the group? Well, yeah, it helped some of the, actually we had some players who had been stricken with COVID. So that obviously helped, right? when they came back. And it helped, you know, we got Bartakov back.

And Marchmont got healthy. And then he got COVID. So poor guy. I wish we could have kind of timed some of these. But it's been a fairly resilient group over the course of my tenure here. We dip or we bend a little bit and not break and then come back. And different guys have stepped it up, you know, in the absence of other guys. and Sasha was out and Jonathan Hubertow, of course, has stepped it up.

Not just Jonathan, but other guys. So it's sort of been leadership and contribution by committee with some of the bigger stars stepping in and other role players stepping in where other guys have been out. So it's been a nice ride so far. I mean, this is like the MVP. conversation season for Jonathan Euberdo, I think. Like, you look at, you look at the way he's played, especially with Barkov out of the lineup. His, his progression over the last few years, and I don't want to, I don't want to make it sound like, you know, he's, I mean, my God,

he's been a really good player for a really long time. But just, what have you seen, what kind of growth have you seen from him over the last few years? Because you look at what he does for every line he's on. You look at how he's mesh with Sam, with, with, like, there's, there's so much, There's so much he does for your team, and there's so much he's done specifically over the last few months. It's interesting. You know, obviously, you know him when you're not part of his organization, is this Uber-skilled player with Hockey Sense.

And then you get here, it's almost a little bit like Sasha, until you get to see him every single day, you don't fully appreciate everything about him. And I'm sure you can say that about a lot of players. The thing about Hubey that really comes to mind for me is in our playoff series against Tampa, where he took his game to the next level and was throwing body checks, was going F1 and taking checks to make plays, getting involved, showing a physical, not only a physical willingness,

the physical ability and how strong is, stepping up his just his all-around game, his leadership. And he has so many aspects. And he has a couple more weapons than his extraordinary skill in hockey sense. But he can, he turned, he just makes plays out of nothing. And it's funny after the games when he come in and watch the room and see guys kind of giggle. How did he do that? Like, how did he even think that might be a play?

Or the coaches after the game said, I was just getting ready to yell at them. And then the puck's in their net. And like, how do you, what am I supposed to say? Like, it was beautiful. It was great. The guy was opening. He tapped him in the empty net.

And you were going to get mad because how, oh, yeah, was great, great pass, great play. He recently had a game of five points. points. And the game prior to that, he was minus one with no points. And we have a little in-game scale. You rate the guys each game, one to five or whatever it is. And that minus one no point game, not just myself, but a number of people in management coaches had given him a five. And I said, I think after the game, I said, you know, you got a five. He said, that was the best no point minus one game I've ever seen a guy play.

I mean, he was awesome. He was all over the ice. He had come back from COVID that day and got his heart clearance at a pregame skate said, let's go. And was fantastic. And just all the little things that he did playing positionally, managing pucks. He could have had maybe six assists

with guys, you know, I think poor Duke, he had set him up and he missed a puck or something, something like that. But he's just a hockey player, this guy. So I like that process, the ratings after the games. Like, what are you looking for in that?

All the teams do it. Yeah, no, I know. I don't let you get out of it, really. But, yeah. Like, what did you see in that five from him? that gave him the five. That's the highest and that's good. Yeah, he played almost a flawless, like every,

every decision he made was right. When he, when he had to manage the game as opposed to the play, it was right. So when you're down three, two and you have the puck at the far blue line, they might want to take a chance because you need a goal late in the game. You're up three, two,

and you're at the far blue line, late in the game, maybe you don't need to take that chance. Get it to, you know, right? And you need to make, need to play chess as well as engaged in this physical activity. Well, you know, everything he did was at the right time for the right reasons and the skill passes that he made and just guys didn't bury it or didn't work out or the goal he made fantastic saves and he got back and played defense and blocked shots and his penalty kill was great. It's just a, it's just an all-around

great game. It's always, it's always interesting to me to hear people with Orr. words talk about like process versus results, right? Where you got to find a way to weigh how a guy's playing versus versus the end result. And I think that's, that's, to me, is what makes your team so dangerous and so interesting is that the underlying numbers are great and the process seems to be strong, but also, I mean, we just said, second points percentage and whatever, the results, the results are there as well. So I don't know.

Is that an ongoing kind of, how do you, how do you weigh that as an organization, like especially from like a stat standpoint? Like, yes, you got to focus on the process, but make sure the results kind of follow. I don't know. It's just always an interesting kind of balance to see how, like how teams strike it. I think if you have the right process and then you execute that process correctly, then the results are going to follow. And if they don't, well, then you have to.

fix the process and get and get the right one, right? Isn't that? And so, yeah, you'll, you'll, you'll lose the odd game and it'll fail every once in a while. But if you have the right personnel and the right process for them, that's what you want to do, get the consistency and keep doing it right over and over. And you have to look for us, we have to look no further than Tampa, right? Game in and game out. They're going to be consistent.

They're going to do, you know, they're going to do it their way for, for, you know, for, their personnel, which is the correct, you know, the right way. And they're pretty consistent the way they do it. And when they do it, they're very effective. And that's what we try to do. And a lot of other teams might not be the same system or the same, but it's the same idea or the same process. And you guys probably, in journalism, you probably do the same thing, right?

You try to write, you know, you try to create the article, you try to, whatever the narrative is or however you do it, you try to keep doing it. a certain way and hopefully have success with it. John, I want to hear your journalism process. Can you take us through your process? No, I'm just making quite a shot that year.

I don't say that. I don't say it lightheartedly. You know, you want it to be entertaining and informative, right? Yeah. You have to have certain elements to the way you write. You have to have clarity and your grammar. You what?

Right? Yeah. Otherwise. Yeah. You have to get really lucky and just kind of fall. ass backwards and do a pretty good job and then, you know, you just do it for 35 years. That's that's the, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, you guys, you're missing my point.

I'm not, no. No. No. I, I, I, I, I, I, it's difficult every single day. Mm-hmm. To draft, uh, you know, to can, to continually write articles that are that people want to read. Um, you can get information that people want to know about. But.

to deliver that message consistently in a certain way. You need to have a process. Yeah. How much is that process changed under Andrew Burnett? Like, what is he brought to the table? That's interesting. And it's fluid, I would say, right now. Initially, not a whole lot, right?

We hadn't lost the game. And so Andrew came in, and it was a difficult situation for us for everybody. emotionally. And it wasn't like anything really needed to be fixed. And so we were, he was slowly, Uber slowly, if you will, just managing the situation, if you will. And then now he's beginning to implement his own fingerprint on the process, right?

where maybe he'll now it's important to understand that Andrew and Q are very, very close, personally and professionally. So Andrew had a pretty significant role in a lot of things, i.e. the power play, the breakout, a lot of the systems and a lot of the way things were done here. Anyway, so that which he's doing now is probably what he would have done anyway, right? Originally and with Q. He's done a very good job, I think, communicating with the guys, letting them know how he operates, how he communicates, what his expectations are, how he deals with failure to meet his expectations, how he would communicate when he's dissatisfied with things. And it's a process. And he's done that all in the face of this rather unique COVID situation. that we face. And I think it's different from last year.

We didn't have any cases, right? We were all in the bubble. And it was, now, I mean, you don't, day to day, you don't know who you're going to have. You don't know players, coaches, staff, who's in, who's out, what's happening. And he lost his captain for several weeks right at the beginning of his tenure. So hopefully we can get some consistency. of lineup for him to be able to really sink his teeth into perhaps it's a bad word to use normal but some type of normal roster schedule and coaching team was there like one precipitating event

that made him feel that that made him start putting his own stamp on the process more like was it was it was it was it just a matter of time out or was it just a matter of time was it just a matter of being in that role being in that role for long enough to get acclimated or did something I don't know. You'd have to ask Kim, but it's a pretty tight coaching group and with a lot of communication, a lot of open communication. And I think a lot of really open communication with the players, you know, the leadership group to the coaches of back and forth.

So I can't pinpoint a seminal moment. He may be able to, and it may be something subtle that really is really important to him that he never really shared. But we just kind of kept going and kept going. And there have been some little subtle changes and maybe reassignment of responsibilities here and there. But for the most part, we just keep on going. it's been great it's been great what there was a lot of speculation in the moment i mean you know

if john torterello really well like that was a name that came up what what was that decision process like for you bill i didn't talk to anybody i really you know in the in the moment um it was it was a very very difficult time for for the organization from myself um for everybody involved. And the initial thought was, well, someone has to coach the game tomorrow. And it's okay, well, I think Andrew's the guy spoke to him. Yeah. And then the more I thought about it was, listen, we really don't need to be fixed. It's not a traditional. It's not a traditional replacement. And this is a very, very capable, very smart, a hockey man, a solid leader. Everybody respects them. Everybody likes them. I had a conversation with them. You know, it's just something you

want to do. Yes, I can handle this. I spoke to Joel. This is something you think, yes. And so, wasn't taken lightly or anything like that. But if you were here and you understood it, it's a good defend it's absolutely worth pursuing. So if the team came out for those first couple games with him after he made that decision and they just look and they look flat, is that one, is that one that change would happen? Or was he the guy from the general? I don't know. I mean, I can't speculate on what ifs. I mean, I can't answer that.

But I can tell you, I believe in him. And I think he's not. And from what I've seen, it just continues to evolve and get better and better every day. And I've really enjoyed so far learning with him and working. So you got a team that's very much in the mix. We're getting close to my. favorite time of the year, which is a trade deadline. But you did some business in the offseason. So you've already moved your first pretty good deal in Reinhart. What do you like,

what's your mentality going with where this team is out with the weird year? It's not a traditional anything. Like what do you see your approach being in the next stretch here in terms of addressing rosters doing all the things GMs do? Yeah. We're getting ready for our pro meetings. anything we can do to to improve, we'll do. I think that goes without saying. Yeah. So it makes sense. And we always want to get better.

We don't want to do things, obviously, that are foolish. But we think that we could do something that'll make us better. We're going to do it. And along those lines, is it like a win now moment for the Florida Panthers in your mind? you know, it could be. I mean, if someone says, do you want Connor McDavid? You should do that. It's great.

You have to take every situation, right, and evaluate it for what it is. Consider the both the short and long-term implications of it and make a decision. Yeah. Would we try to do things? the short term to try to make us better for this season that may have great short-term implications and less savory, longer-term implications? Yeah, possibly. Yeah.

Would we love to do a deal that has wonderful short-term implications and also great long-term implications? Yeah. Would we even do a deal that's just okay short-term and really great long-term? you know, sure, would we prefer to do a deal? Like, you guys know the answers to all this. Unless and until there's something that's right in front of us that we know and I could react and respond to it, it's really hard because, you know, the truth is, look, we're going to do anything and everything we can to help ourselves this year.

and minimize, how should I say, the long-term potential cost. Yeah. That would make it just so draconian that you couldn't do it. Right, right. This year, even, I mean, it's tough to say because it's been two years since we've had a normal season, whatever, three years at this point. But like, how good of a sense do you think GMs have of how good. their teams are, like now relative to the past. Like, I don't, I don't, that's a, that's a tough thing for me to parse.

You look at just how up and down and some teams have played 35 games and some teams have played 24 and some teams have been healthy and some teams haven't. How do you weigh all that, all those different factors as a, as a manager in coming up with like a clear-eyed view of how good your team is or is not? Good question. Is it just a matter of waiting out another month? I don't know that there can be a general answer to that because almost by definition of the question itself, right? Some teams have played fewer games and then the significant injuries to those teams.

So they may have a completely different prism from which to make their decisions. And you can't apply whatever my answer would be. you know, for us, I think we have a pretty good handle because our core is pretty much the same as it was last year. So now I've got almost 80 games or so to see how these guys playing interact. So I have a pretty good idea, at least of how the core is. You know, we added Sam Reinhardt, who's, you know, one of the top six guys. you know, but maybe someone else might not have as many guys together as long as our guys have been.

So I don't know. It's kind of a tough one. All right. We hit our, we're squeezed for time and we've already pushed our limit with you, Billy. So we'll save all of our Tim Thomas questions for part two of this interview when we can do that another time. But thanks for doing this, Billy. It's good to see you.

You're welcome. Nice to see you guys. And best of luck navigating everything you're navigating. Thank you very much. Oh boy. Good luck. Happy new year. They've got a good thing that they're going in Florida.

Your team, the Florida Panthers. My team. They're fun to watch, man. That's a really, really deep team. And you look at the moves that Bill's made, honestly. Like this stamp that he's put on that organization. It's easy to come in and win when you have Sasha Barkhov and John. Jonathan Euberdow and whatever, but Sam Bennett looks like he was...

I mean, it's easy to say that. They've been around a while now. Exactly. Totally. Sam Bennett is a trade that looks like it's paid off. Sam Reinhardt paying off. Mackenzie Weeger, guys like that, he's... They might be a wagon.

And most of all, they're a lot of fun to watch. They are the ESPN Plus team of the month for us. And the watchability rankings in the, Demetri, they're way up there. What you should do. Yeah, they should be. All right. Let's sort of break and we will be right back. We are now thrilled to be joined by the recently retired.

Oh, so jealous of that statement. My goodness. I'm jealous lately of the multiple Olympic medals and, you know, World Championship Golds, but being retired, Gigi Marvin, my goodness, how does it feel? Can you articulate the retired life? Well, you know, right after I announced that retirement, my brother pulled me out of retirement to play in the War Road High School Alumni game.

That was pretty fun. But yeah, it was kind of, it's a lot. Like, I mean, retiring from Team USA, I played with the national team for 13 years. And ever since I was 10 years old and saw the 98 women win Olympic gold medal like that, that was what my dream once. And so it's very difficult, saying, like shifting into non-athletic, non-high-level competitive life. But I'm super grateful for the incredible team that I had and the teammates and just all the experiences. I mean, hockey's such a small world. I swear I walk in any rank regardless of where I am in the world.

And you have a connection from somewhere back in your playing days. How did you do in the alumni game? Did you light them up? You know, I'm not going to lie. We crushed it. I personally requested my brother to be my linemate. He put me on the other team. They lost.

I'm just going to put that out there, bud. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, my little nephew was so bummed. He was cheering for daddy. And I'm like, listen, he had the decision. He could have came on the winning team. That's, I mean, that's his call. Did Osi show up or is it or is it just you?

He's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not in the war road, in the war road alumni games yet. Right. I think there's a little bit more going on as the NHL was kind of shutting down with all the COVID issues. So we wanted to have you on for a number of reasons. One, most, I mean, just to say congratulations and reflect on an incredible career. And, I mean, just, you know, a remarkable time in the history of the sport and the impact that you made and the group made. And I'd like to get into that. And also, you know, to look ahead to the Olympics a little.

I mean, you know these, these are your teammates. And you mentioned that when you're talking offline a little bit about, you know, seeing them at the Winter Classic. What was it like to see them? And what are they feeling right now going into these Olympics? It was a lot of fun to see them. And, you know, Target Field in-game did a fantastic job announcing them. And I come to find out that that's not what was shown on TV, that the way that they did it was

not at all what we experienced in Target Field. And so that's pretty disappointing because I thought they did outstanding. And they introduced every single player, had a variety of different graphics up, was able to highlight the incredible skill they had, especially, of course, the Minnesota homegrown girls, which we all loved. And so it's, of course, there's a lot of difficulties surrounding and anxiety surrounding Olympics, but to consider and think through what those women have accomplished and being in their journey and in their life, I was like so pumped and so proud of those guys and can't wait to cheer for them in about a month.

Yeah. Can we talk about the, yeah, like, how hard would it have been to televise that? Can we not, can we just do one thing right? That's all. You know, I didn't, yeah, and I never saw the video. I didn't see the live feed. I heard from a bunch of people that they kind of had someone talking over it. It was weird. And it wasn't an American. It was weird. And so I just, it's, it's not that hard to show a face, show a name, show a roster. And they move to the next face and show a name and show like, where they're from. Hey, two-time Olympian, Hannah Brandt. But that's about, I'm not in charge of that. I was just a fan cheering. So, it's frustrating. It's like, anyways. Yeah. I like, you look at, I mean, this group not only is dealing with all the anxieties and stress and pressure that comes with the normal Olympics. There's everything, you know, all the reasons that the NHL players aren't going. Do you sense

any, like, you know, additional anxiety or how are they? Carbrennial. excuse me, compartmentalizing it as athletes. That was hard to say. My goodness. Geez, why was that so tough? Carmelizing. Because I can't do it. Can't compartmentalize anything.

How are they caramelizing as athletes? They're caramelizing. Well, picking up a few caramelized rules. You know, to be an Olympian, you're pretty skilled mentally to compartmentalize. And, you know, everyone knows how physically demanded it is. but no one really talks about how insanely challenging mentally it is. And so this is just another aspect of that. And not to say it's good or bad, it's compartmentalized,

but their job is to play hockey, just like mine was in the past three Olympics. And there's always a lot of buzz around in Olympics. It always ramps up the anxiety, whether we were in Russia, whether we were in South Korea. There's something that seemed to always amp up. And then the second you got there, it dissipated. And that's kind of,

what the media, it seems, is kind of geared towards doing. And so within our team, as I'm sure they're doing right now, is just kind of focusing, keeping on the main thing, the main thing. Like, you already have enough. It's already enough to think, hey, my entire life is around this one game. To be the best, I only have four years. It's not every single year. It's four years.

And I've had that dream since they were, I don't know, some, I was 10. And so you think about that. It's, I had to wait for my Olympics. to get a gold medal at 12 years. Like, I mean, it's just pretty crazy to think about. You have to wait 12 years and you only have three chances, whereas a lot of other sports you get it every year. So, of course, there's a lot of different things around it,

but knowing these girls so well, I think, you know, they're doing everything that they possibly can to control what they can control and adjust and adapt when they need to. It's a roster that's loaded with, you know, familiar names. and veterans that we know. But I like that it's got some, it's got some youth. And I think it's,

they said eight first time Olympians. Is there anybody that you're looking forward to? Are you, you're predicting is going to have a breakout Olympics that, you know, will be a household name by the end of it? Hmm. You know,

household name. I don't know about that. I haven't thought too much about that. I'm still thinking just like, I know, like the girl so well. Like I was so pumped. Haley Skamara,

she, you know, she's someone I haven't played with for a while and just cheering for her. She's a first time. or Gincy Don. She's wearing number 19 going to be cheering for her. And so I love her. And she was actually, in 2014, she was the youngest player selected on her pre-Olympic roster. And so she stepped up at me in the locker room. And I just, I mean, she's just incredible faith, great character. I mean, she was only like 17. And the grind we go through, you're just, she was, she ended up

being cut in November. But I have so much respect for who she is and what she's able to endure. And so I'm pretty pumped about those two. Those two are the first, I guess, that would come to mind. People that I'm like, knowing their story and their journey, I can't even wait to cheer for them. Yeah. That's also kind of like, are they, they're sort of like the first wave of players who grew up watching you guys, who grew up watching that generation,

like you and Hillary and Megan and in whoever else. It's cool to see that the transition was kind of in place. when you see it's like 13 and 9 or whatever, whatever the breakdown is between like returning players and new players. I mean, that's, that's something that came here. Granado talked about last week, too, just having that sort of, you know, having that sense of history and that sense of pipeline. So I don't know.

What was that like you, I guess, phasing into as kind of a senior member of the team and seeing, you know, the girls you inspired come up? Yeah, it's pretty surreal because you yourself experienced that. So like my first players, played with, but I was like, holy smokes. These guys are incredible. It was Chrissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz. And to be on the same line as them, playing in the world championships, you're like, oh gosh, you know, you can't screw up. Like, these are the best players in the world. And then fast forward, you know, 10, 12 years of already being on the team for quite a while.

And so you know what they feel like. And so I think or what they're going through. And I thought our teammates, the ones that I grew up with, I did a phenomenal job welcoming them. in actually creating a culture where they're valued and they find that immediately because I think there are some cultures and some teams in locker rooms that say, you know, we're the best because we're the veterans. You don't talk, you know, mind your own manners, like kind of wait by the way, the sidelines. And we're like, you know, they're the best for a reason, whether they're 14 or 18 or they're 26. Like, why not get them comfortable and have them play the best possible version of themselves every night on the ice.

And so it's hopefully they felt that. Hopefully they felt very welcomed and appreciated. And, you know, I get what it's like competing against players you grew up or competing with players. You grew up just like kind of watching and thinking they're incredible. But hopefully they felt a little bit more comfortable. Some of us did roll into the team. That's great.

One of the things that you've said is, and you kind of hinted at it earlier, is I think media or outsiders don't appreciate kind of a mental strain and you said emotional complexity that goes into competing at this level. Can you articulate more? Can you explain, try to try to kind of shed some light into what that means to you and really how you power through that? Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, everyone can think about like the difficulty of performing at your best

or the thought of, you know, you're always being evaluated. A coach is constantly there. But I think the number one challenge that I don't think people quite understand, especially for a woman hockey player, is we kind of go through two Olympic trials. So there's one in about May, let's say, where they invite the top 40 players. And it's just a week, fitness testing, practices, games. But that's a piece of cake because they nominate that they name a roster, but then they always pick two to four players who they're going to cut.

So you have seven months leading to the Olympics where you have no idea. you're going to get cut. And so not only do you have to be the absolute best and mentally respond quickly after mistake and apply new concepts, apply new strategies, handle injuries, handle shuffling lines, but you constantly have that fear and that wondering of, am I going to make it? Am I going to show up in the locker? There are so many times we came, not so many, there's only two to four cuts, but you never knew. Sometimes you come off a bus, off a road trip, and all of a then players gone, pulled aside at the coaching room and they're gone. Sometimes we'd

go to practice and it happened where their stall is just cleaned out and you just, the gravity of the moment set in. And so I think realizing that not only are we trying to be the absolute best we can be, but we are emotionally trying to handle the performance aspect,

the fear of failure, the am I going to get cut? Did I do enough? But also the dynamic of, I need to help my team be the best so that America wins a gold medal. But my teammate, like they might go to the Olympics and not me. So do I help them? Do I not? How do I handle that complexity of, you know, yes, I want the team to win because the only time way I'm going to win a gold medal is if the team wins. However, what if I help them? And that's what sets them off

to go on a tear and then I'm stuck at home. So you have these internal battles, of course, like any human does because we're inherently, you know, you want the best for yourself, but I'm just so, you know, my teammates were just incredible as how they recognize that, you know, this is a real thing. Let's just call a spade a spade. Let's call it out and say, you know, yeah, absolutely. We have no idea if the person sitting next to you is going to make it or not, but we did a pretty solid job of keeping knowing that the team is greater than ourselves. And we are part of something bigger than ourselves and recognizing that every, we did, we can't control who's going to be on the team. And so do you choose right now to

help and encourage? Because you had a decision, what you're going to do is either going to help a team or it's not. And if you look at it from that kind of, in a room, move of the emotions as hard as it is, it makes it a little bit easier. And then you kind of just work from there. But I don't think that's probably easily the most challenging thing is recognizing that, hey, there's that internal battle within you and that fear of goodness. I don't know. if I get off this bus, if I am going to the locker or if I'm going to get cut. You know, like, because it's, you just don't know, which in my mind, I'm like, that's the craziest thing to live through.

Like, you're already under enough stress and pressure. Why not just select the team and let's roll? But I'm just not. Can I raise that question? Why not just select the team and let's roll? That is, I feel like this is unnecessary, this extra layer of stress and anxiety. Well, not only that, but what's funny is in, well, it's not funny, but in 2018, they did that.

So in May, they technically named 23 players. Well, then they're like, actually, it's Halloween. We're going to bring in one more player and all of you are in the hot seat. And then Thanksgiving rolls around in 2017. They're like, you know what? I think we're going to bring two more players in. And we're just like, all right. All right.

How about three? How about five? Yeah. Why does that three? Why not bring another 20 in and like that's all like. And so they ended up sending three home. that they initially told me of the team. And so there are so many mental

crazy gymnastics. Like, I just, I don't, yeah, there are so many things mentally that an athlete needs to either compartmentalize,

but hopefully not necessarily compartmentalize because that's going to, I mean, it comes up later in life. And you hear about it now a little bit more, but like it's not an easy thing to go through handling and avoiding or avoiding kind of all this pain and this fear and this but yeah it's hey we want a gold medal despite all those

challenges so that's so I've always contended you all want a gold medal in spite of a lot of things you know what I mean like we can say maybe that worked or you don't mean like I would argue like the things you all had to overcome to win that gold is just monumental like the distractions and what you had to accomplish and fight for It's one of the greatest accomplishments in American sports history. And I don't know people, like, I know we appreciate it, but I don't, like the, the hurdles that seem to be unnecessarily put in front of you to get there is, it's just remarkable to me. And if you go back, so the Olympic tryouts were in 20, the first wave of them was in 2017 in May. two months prior to that in April or end of March is when we boycotted USA hockey

because of the way that they treat women and girls. And so not only are your athletes training to be an Olympian and enduring this sort of process in what it takes to be a gold medal, but they're also like constantly aware in recognizing the massive discrepancies between the two genders and constantly working overtime, trying to just get hurt, not even really change yet, because you have to get heard first.

And then hopefully there might be some systemic change coming. And so you think about that one year, which was less than a calendar year, from that change with girls and women's hockey in America to winning a gold medal, I mean, a lot of people are, That's what I'm most proud about. Like, yes, winning Olympic medal is the most important thing, but I hope that, you know, my niece and my nephew, they're just like me and my brother growing up together.

The discrepancies are like vastly different for them. Like, I mean, it's going to, that's a lasting impact. Yes, it's pretty cool to win a gold medal and inspire that kind of confidence and dreams for young kids. but to hopefully have an organization create such change in how they develop, think about, train, market toward their girls and women. I hope that that,

I know that that'll be much more long lasting then. I just, I think it's amazing that you talked about compartmentalization for like five minutes and didn't. All right, you guys are really showing off, just throwing that word out and now very afford. cartmintillization or whatever you called it earlier. It's amazing that you talked about compartmentalizing as an athlete

without even going into the fact that you had a fight for equity and equality during an Olympic cycle. Like that with our own genes. Yes. That was also something that was on your mind when you're like, am I going to have a spot on the roster? Who am I fighting against to make this team? And also, by the way, we're battling against our own jersey for fair treatment.

That's just still, I don't even know if I have a question. I'm just piggybacked on what Craig said. Like they're just, they're bringing, they're bringing out the hurdles and throwing them in front of you. I mean, but there really is. I can't think of a better example than that. You want to talk about compartmentalization? Holy, holy shit. I know.

And it's, yeah, which is why I think you can appreciate how much I respect my teammates. Yes. Like it's one thing to handle kind of some of these different external factors, but to handle the internal challenges and then to just come face to face my entire life, my teammates, entire life, seeing the massive differences, like at every single level of what is afforded to my brother versus myself and recognizing that, yes, there's a difference because they started at different points, 100% I get that. That's not what we're saying.

But there comes a point where you recognize, hey, you know what, this program has been in existence for a while. Maybe we should try to think outside the box or actually think in general about how to make this program better or how to add more developmental games, how to add. I mean, that's kind of what you usually think about is how can I grow and expand upon this product and invest. And you see that done in one avenue, but it's not even existed very, it's not too existing in the other avenue. And so, yeah, I have the most respect for those incredible women to not only sacrifice their own body and mind to make the team better, but more importantly, sacrifice so much of their energy, what they might have risked in order to make the. entire game better and make hundreds of millions of girls and women have a completely different

experience than hopefully we experienced. Sean and I talk a lot about like USA hockey or the NHL. There's times where you can do what's right and also do what's right for like business reasons. And like this is such an, like we, we see it in college athletes now and women's sports with the, the likeness, the ability to get sponsors. And there's huge interest. Like people can't get it.

And it's like, oh, when you just open. it up to the public to decide and not have any restrictions on it, people are super interested and they want to connect with these athletes. And so here you have, it's so easy. It doesn't seem like, it's so easy. And it's so frustrated. I mean, certainly more frustrating to you than me, but like, like, I just find it so perplexing.

So like, and not to like beat a dead horse, but you, I mean, you guys advanced the ball a long way USA hockey. And we've been critical of the organization. Where do you think it is now or where do you think the biggest area opportunity for growth on the women's side is with USA hockey? Yeah. Well, I think just continuing, just looking at the overall development of creating games, I think that's something that we, I mean, I had played nine games you get it all year for the national team. And that was the same basically since like 19, I don't have the numbers, but like in the 90s. Right.

We haven't made no growth. 2017 and we're like, listen, it's been a while now that we've been playing under this nine game format. I think we need to play a little bit more, maybe. Maybe. There's been definitely changes with that, but like anything regarding say, even something simple, like video, how often can you just hit in YouTube, Google like even a fourth name, fourth liner, NHL player, and find tons of clips, right? Right. You Google Hannah Brandt, Hillary Knight, the best players in the world.

And you can't find video access to that. There's not much database as far as stats. And I'm really grateful because of the people I work for on, I'm a broadcaster now with Minnesota Wild and Valley Sports. And the producers are incredible. They want to highlight the players that I played with in like the women's game. And so, but it's difficult because we're going back and there's no video access. Like, I played for 13 years and you can't use Google. high its level.

Video clips. It's in those just little things like that. Or when you, you know, you go to the NHL and you click like, say, Matt Zucarillo, and there's a ton that just pop immediately under his name, not just video clips, press conferences, like different random promotional things. You go to the USA website and you click on a name what comes up. Maybe a picture, a mugshot? So those are just little things.

Those are seriously. That sort of stuff is, I think it's really important to keep highlighting those kind of bits of inequality and inequity, because I think those are the things that sort of hammer home the stuff that your team and you coming up face with versus the men's. Like, and it's not, it's not even, it's not 22 years ago or whatever, whenever Camie Granato had to wear like a men's cut sweatsuit or whatever. It's not quite at that point. It's not like there's no flights and whatever.

But hearing that stuff laid out, something like you guys don't have good YouTube clips of yourself, like that is, that to me is so, so, so important to kind of hammer home exactly the stuff you guys, the stuff like women and girls are fighting for here because there's something really illustrative about it. So is there anything else? Is there any other crazy thing that you kind of experienced in the last five years where you're just like, how is this, how is this a thing? there definitely are but like you bring up an interesting point that reminds me of an email actually I had our conversation and some conversations I've had with just dads who coach there's one guy I was

talking to he's a pee coach down here in Minnesota he has one girl on his team and he asked his players he said hey who's your favorite NHL player or who's your favorite hockey player and of course the boys rattle off names left and right he gets to his only girl who's insanely skilled he tells me and he goes she was I couldn't even name one and And it's, I'm like, I get that. I know that. Like, think about how many, just yourself think how many women hockey players can you name. How many women, just athletes in general can you name and bring that to the level of like a 10 year old girl.

What is the message they're feeding? What are they getting? What are they seeing on TV? What are they seeing on their phone? Where's the axis at and where the YouTube clips at, right? And so if you think about it, and when I was 10, before the Olympics happened in 1998, that was literally me. 20-some years ago, that was me where I could rattle up every single avalanche player.

I was like a diehard abs fan. I could like name all the like legends of the past. You know, they celebrate their history. We barely even know our history with Team USA. And so here we are 20-some years later. And that is such a common theme where you don't know. No, still. Yet we have, even of those nine games a year, you have nine games a year where you have clips,

that could be easily recycled. Think about how many times people rewatch those, like, what were they in the 90s, like those biggest hits videos? How many times did we rewatch that same VHS, right? Absolutely. How hard is it for someone, in my mind, I'm like fighting for someone who has video access to all these international clips from USA hockey and they just say, hey, we're just going to go back to even

2006, G's first year on the national team and we're just going to put every single we're going to find different clips of each of the players and just put them out there. And then we're going to go to 2007 and then put it out. Then we're going to go like, it's there. We have nine games a year, right?

Like we at least have something. And that to me, I know I'm making fun a little bit, but we can start somewhere. You got to start somewhere. And so that to me, hopefully in 22 years, I don't have a parent being like, listen, I coach a kid.

Who's a girl? She's incredible. There's no one to look for it because I can't Google it. I can't find it. There's not much access. Like, I'm hoping that's not the case in 20-some years as they hopefully will watch four more Olympic teams win a gold medal with the U.S. flag on their chest. And like, I literally was up late last night and I didn't sleep because I'm sitting there

emailing him being like, you have no idea how much I wanted to do. just can I call you and just talk to you? I feel, I hear what this girl is going through and I know what you're going through right now. Yeah, you're like, I'm, I'm going to call you right after I try to figure out how to edit, how to edit YouTube videos and put this shit online myself

because, because this is, because this is insane. I have access to some of my video. I'm like, if only I was a video genius, you could somehow upload them and provide clips of Hillary Knight and Kendall Cohen and Brianna Decker and Casey Bellamy, I'm like, no, I know.

Even if we just had like a minute, if that would be one. Wonderful. If only there was some organization that could maybe do that for you, do you know? If only there was some infrastructure in place, who could possibly put that on the internet for, for you. And that's what it always comes down to, right? Where it's like, then it becomes, it's on the backs of the women to have to do it themselves. Like, I, like, I remember talking to the twins or somebody during the, um, the fight against USA hockey.

And they were like, we designed our own logos and like, they were doing the graphic design or even like the promo. Like, the, the amount of things you all did in your era over the top, over and beyond what was asked of hockey players, even just from promoting the game. Like, I brought my daughter to a game at USA Hockey Arena and every player stayed after and sat on a table and signed autographs for every single person in the building. Like, that was, I mean, maybe you wanted to, but that was the expectation. And, like, imagine, like, that's, nobody's asking the bed after the arena clears out. okay, do your game. Set up.

Here's your table. Here's some mini sticks. And get signing until, and get a picture with every kid. And I know you all probably did it out of the love and you wanted to. But like it's always fallen. It's always falling on. The men have the option not to not to care about that.

They have the option not to give a shit and leave. Women, it's like you need to grow the game. Right. Which 100% we do. But I think more so or not. 100% yes, that's the correct message. I think it's the wrong way to,

I think people think you have to do it in order to, I don't think it's a given to take or either or, but as far as signing autographs, I think it's just a genuine love from my, I know my teammates and I at heart, like we just love seeing the kids. We were that girl. And just thinking about,

even with this video access like that I've been mentioning, you know, I've actually had some really good conversations with USA hockey about how they want. I mean, so there is change for sure. It's not what it was a while ago. And I'm actually just because of the retirement ceremony that we were supposed to have, had awesome conversations and telling them, hey, I get to work with the wild and they have awesome producers who want to incorporate some of these videos.

And so that's very helpful to have the language from the top, our GM and our PR guy, wanting to circulate some of this and giving release for video access. So it's definitely progress and step in the right direction, which I'm super grateful for. And the girls have said that they've seen change within the organization on the national team as well. So it's good and there can be better. There's more.

It's good. And it can give like infinitely better, I imagine. All right. I don't know. We've taken way too much your time. So, like, is there, because, because you're in a reflective moment of your life, right? You're retiring, you know, 13 years with the program. Like, is there, do you have, as you sit and think back is, do you have that moment for you that, like, you're going to, you're going to cherish the rest of your life that you'll never forget. That means the most to you. Well, there's a, I mean, I don't know if I can say the most to you, but like a meeting that my team,

teammates and I had with the USA executives, like during that, that definitely comes to mind. And then another- Hold out, hold on. I mean, I can't just skate right by that. Well, which one do you want to? How significant of like, hey, this is just, yeah, like, this is a really important thing. And it's worth, we don't know if we'll even be invited to that Olympic trial in five and half weeks.

We don't know if we'll go to worlds. We don't know if we'll ever get to play again, but it's worth it. my niece is worth this. The kids I don't know is worth it. And so that memory comes to mind, just seeing the resilience and resolve in my teammates' face and then realizing like, yeah, like our GM and our president and like they're like, hey, yeah, absolutely. You know, just that says a lot to be able to come together and see, hey, yeah, this is going

to be something that's very important to us from both sides and let's work toward it. But so as far as like off the ice and then on the ice hands down, winning the gold medal and like that was unreal. I had every moment from it. I mean, I had six friends who somehow ended up right behind Zabadoos. Oh my God. Like the videos that they have,

I'm like in my family is in the stands. Like somehow my mom gets on the ice, sister-in-law, like everyone comes on the ice. And it was so much fun. And like you're just, you're just, you just,

I can't even believe it. I think I was the last one to get out of the box because I was so stunned because it took job. it seemed like forever to go score. And then Maddie saved and I'm like, oh my gosh, it happened. Like, oh my gosh. It was like 12 years. Like I said, like you have to wait four years for your first one and then another four.

And then we lost in overtime. And then four years later, here we are. And it didn't just take one game. It didn't just take overtime. It didn't just take a shootout. It took sudden death in the shootout. Like, how much more time can we put this thing off? Like, what is after that?

What comes after a sudden death? How can we escalate this even further? Exactly. Well, congratulations. I mean, an unreal career, and I can tell you're not done. I don't know what you have coming next, but I know you'll continue to make an impact. So thank you so much for doing this. And congratulations again.

Thanks, guys. It was great chatting with you. It was awesome. Thank you. So Gigi gets the open invite for all time, right, John? Yeah, yeah. That's right. She was great.

You know what? This show should just be her and Bobby Ryan. Just get us out of there completely. We're talking about replacing one of us with Bobby Ryan last week. No. Replacing both of us with Bobby Ryan. In Gigi Marvin. And Gigi Marvin.

I mean, what could be more American? I mean, they're actually accomplished Americans in the hockey space. Yeah. Yeah. That doesn't have to give it the caveat. They're accomplished Americans, period. In the hockey space. Bobby Ryan outside of hockey space.

Bobby Wright outside of hockey. What is he done? Wow. What a problem. Do something with your life, Bobby. Jesus Christ. She's great. Gigi, you are welcome back anytime. Always, every segment.

Thank you. Please, fill us out. We will be back for our favorite segment of the week. The only good segment. That's right. Your questions from the reader comments on the hour. You got the name correct. Way to go.

Thank you. Nope. We'll be right back. This is the portion of the show where we go to the app, to the athletic app. And again, you guys are champs for doing this. I know it's a lot of fun for everybody, you know. Go to the athletic app. Mm-hmm.

Tap listen. Oh, you're going to actually do it. You're going to take us through. Tap NHL. Mm-hmm. Tap the athletic hockey show. Uh-huh. Scroll down to our last episode.

It's the Winter Classic Yager Salute with Mike Rope. That's right. Details. So, comments. This would be the Bill Zito G.G. Marvin episode. That was how you identify it. Oh, sure. Can we get our name?

I'm like somewhere either on the logo or this is. I don't know if I it. We are the most popular show. I'd probably complained about that a couple weeks. Did you file a, at the, do we have something at work where we can file like complaints? Like an HR complaint? Yeah, like an 8-Roc plate. That's right.

I'm going to talk to Mike G about this. Get my C on the line. I'm going to. That's great. No, you guys are, you guys are the best. I love, someone said last week that you can always tell which episodes are ours because they're the ones that actually have comments. That's right.

Monday. And you guys, you guys never, you guys never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, even over a holiday weekend. Man, this is a reminder of how good Rup was last week, by the way. by the way. He was awesome. Yeah, we're glancing through these. Rupp is dominated. Mike, if you didn't listen, don't, again, as we always say, skip all of Sean and my parts, go right to the interview, listen to Mike Rupp to hear at the very least his Yager stories. Like, who knew? I'm like, we asked about the salute, as one does when you have Mike Rup on the show.

Who knew there was like an maybe one-sided arts rivalry there? That it came out of spite? Yeah. I don't think I don't think anybody. I don't think anybody knew that. man you guys you guys killed it we'll start we'll start at the top with Carlos Lowe you know what my favorite thing about the Monday show is it means I'm only one day away from the Tuesday show

calling out Haley and Ian Julian was on the Monday show yesterday Julian McKenzie yeah oh he's he gets a podcast type good I'm just glad he could make some time to schedule to make the first podcast appearance of his life Julian McKenzie.

And he talked some shit. Talk some shit on me. I believe he referred to me as just a guy. Just a guy. And then Haley laughed. Don't appreciate any of it. So that's why I'm reading this nasty comment about how bad the Monday show is. Wow.

We'll see. Hey, Will. Welcome back. Will C says, gonna need to get a Rop Danbury Trashers jersey now. I still haven't watched that doc, by the way. I haven't either. There was like a long-form Danbury Trashers doc. Isn't they?

Are you going crazy? You know, I think you're right. That reminds me. I was listening to a ringer pod. They were talking about the top five sports movies of all time. And they said the gap, Simmons claims the gap between one and the hockey space, slap shot and two, whatever that might be is gigantic. I don't think that's true.

Like, I mean, I get slap. That would be one, but I don't know. I guess. What do you have is number two? I don't know. I mean, are you allowed to say like the Mighty Ducks? Like, it's a, like, are those not serious enough? Or are the kid movies?

I think the first Mighty Ducks is much less of a kid's movie than the second one. Yeah. Like the first, the first one is just, it's bad news bears on ice, but bad news bears is not a kid's movie. That's right. Necessarily. It's just, it's just a funny movie. I just don't think the gap is that large, is what I'm saying. What would be your two?

Are we going to just concede one to slap shot? I guess. How about this for a kind of alternate discussion? Did you see that thing going around where it was you replaced the cast of one movie with Muppets except for one person? No. Okay. It was like a tweet prompt where it's like, think of a movie, replace the cast with Muppets, except you keep one live. like one human cast member.

Okay. Do it with Slapshot. But do you keep Paul Newman as the human? Or do you keep the guy that plays Ned Braden as the human? Well, I mean, I think it's Paul Newman. Because Paul Newman was great. Yeah, I know. But like having the human be the, having the human be the one that like observes all the chaos is also a funny part of Muppin movies.

You either keep the villain or like the straight man like the Danny Noon type in Caddysha. Did we talk about this? Because so Cormick, again, is he's been on a Muppet's kick. Like, just dove full and, like, is obsessed. And so we did all the Muppet Christmas movies over Christmas. And we watched the Muppet Christmas

Carol, which wasn't good. It really wasn't. Like, I'm a huge Muppets person. It was fine. With Michael Kane? Listen, Michael Cain never broke character. He was so, like, I was dying. Like, he was treating it like it was

Hamlet. Absolutely. It was, that's what made it amazing. But it wasn't like, it wasn't like entertained like I am. Oh, dude. But Michael Kane was amazing.

Like, that's what you need from the human. That's the age gap between the two of us is that I saw, I saw Muppet Christmas Carol in theaters when I was like six or whatever. So to me, it's like, it's, it's,

I can't imagine, I can't imagine crapping on that. But Michael Kane should have gone out. But Michael Kane, you said it, Michael Kane should have got an Oscar. Should have got it. Like,

I just loved. How serious, like, when you've got Muppets around you and, you know, whatever. That's it. It was, he just, there was never like a wink or anything. It was, I am a awful. Michael, Michael Kane's straight face interacting with Sweetums. That's so easy. All right, sorry.

Jesus, we get sidetrack. Is that the first question? Yeah. Since this is the USA show, this from Sarah L. Sarah L, excuse me. Since you, this is the USA show. Could we get some USA Women's Olympic Team Gas and content, pretty, please? Yes.

Sarah, my friend, you were in luck. and it's going to continue. This is no, this is obviously, isn't a one-off with Gigi. We're going to try to keep cycling, keep cycling those folks in. In fact, Gigi gets her own segment every week. Again, she's just going to take over the show completely, and then we don't have to do this anymore. Eric G. writes, heck of a job, as always.

Anywho, quick question for you, too, as you've both been to a bunch of outdoor games. I'm a lightning fan living in Orlando, and have been considering going to the stadium series game. I'd have to sit in the cheap seats, and even those aren't that cheap. I'm curious if you think it's actually worth going. I've heard these things are kind of terrible.

Thanks. Is it worth going as a fan? Here's what I would say, yes. Like, I'm not going to tell anyone how to spend their money. I like, look, if you don't, I'm actually not a big go to sporting events. I'd way rather watch a bunch, get my friends in the living room or whatever.

Like, that's where I've landed in life. But if you like events, and you want to like make a day of it and tailgate and like the hockey the sight line's probably going to be terrible so you have to you have to accept that you might not be able to actually see what's going on but I've always enjoyed the spectacle of the outdoor games although I don't think I've been to a stadium series games I've been to all the winter classics until the last couple years I've never does I don't I'm just going to assume it's the same it's got the same vibe so I would say yes I'm a yes depending on the cost yeah I've um

Oh, man. I think that's one of those things where if you're thinking about going to it, you might as well pull the trigger on it. Like, like, if you're on the fence on something like that, this is, this is Eric, you should probably,

you should probably go. Yeah. But then I would also say that you'll probably have it out of your system after the first one. You'll be like, I got it. It's cool. It's a good experience.

You're going to be like, I get it. But those are, those are what the outdoor games exist for. They exist for, especially stadium series games. They exist for the people who were there. Yeah. They exist for the cities where they're held in the fan bases that are involved.

Also, I would say, like, we were watching the Winter Classic and my wife was like, oh, I love the outdoor game. She's because, as we'd mentioned earlier, she's come on a couple of those trips. And she's like, what, it's such a great event. I love these games. She's never gone to one. She's just been around all the periphery, like where you walk around and they have the rink set up and, like, just all the partying that goes around. If you can, if you have, if it feels like the vibe, I mean, it's Florida, whatever, it feels like the vibe would be good. It's probably, it's probably, it's probably worth it.

I mean, yes. I don't know if that's at night. I don't know if, is, is that game at night? I don't know, Sean. How much, how much better? What channels are like, these games, these games are aesthetically so much, but I would much rather go to a stadium series game at night than one that starts like it, at three in the afternoon. Yeah, that's fair. The night starts are really cool

Yeah, Eric, I think if you're if you're thinking about it It's probably it's probably worth it But report back I want actually I would like you to go And then find your way back into the comments section Eric And give us I would like a full report If nothing else if nothing if nothing else the scene's going to be fun And if you're into the tailgating scene or whatever I'm sure there'll be places to

In fact you can have segment two as well Eric Yeah And segment one and when we'll interview It's from Tim L I'd like to see a guest brought on the show, then wait until said guess is deep into a compelling story, then play the Oscar rapid-up music. I believe this would be worth the reaction. You know, we kind of have our own version of the rapid-up music where we start talking to each other and completely ignore the person we're interviewing, which is kind of their signal to get out of there. Get lost.

I mean, I went to see, because we asked for people to go onto Apple pods or wherever you listen to review. And I'm like, oh, did anybody listen? You know, you're always curious. Does anybody review? and I went and I was reading the reviews. Hey, don't ever do this. But it's good. And I appreciate everyone that gave five-star reviews.

And if you haven't, please do so. But one said it was like listening to a bunch of drunks talking over each other. It gave it like a one-star review. I'm not saying that was our show. In fairness, in fairness, they could have been talking about anybody. It could have been the Cherokee's interview. It could have been Haley and Ian. You never know.

No way. It was Ian such a pro. I bet you Ian is never. talked over anyone in his life. He is a pros pro. Whereas you and I, that's our, that's our Oscar music. Like someone's story goes long, we just start cracking jokes. You know what else?

Here's what I think. I think they mix us up with that damn Cory Prondman. The very, the very mysterious Cory Broneman. Here's what I'll say about Corey. If he has to get something off, if he has to say something, he would not. Like, he's not going to wait until you're done. Like, he has to say it. Like, Corey just, he's like, he just has to get it out.

Yeah, or else he'll die. That's right. He's a steamroller. That's why we love him. Oh, Tynan. E. Tynan's back. Regular.

Friend of the show. Can we get a Tuesday episode poster and then get Rupp to cite it with Monday's show sucks? That's amazing. Great episode. That's a great comment. That might be the comment of the week. So I found that picture. Rup told a story about how.

It was a photo of him fighting Aaron Ashum when Ashum was on the flyers. And someone asked him to sign Flyers suck of a Penguins fan. He didn't want to do it. Ended up on eBay. It was, you know, he got goaded into it, basically. I found that, I found the photo for sure. I was trying to find, like, one of the copies of, you know, of Flyers suck and in Microp's handwriting that he was best about.

Could not, could not find that. You couldn't find the Flyers suck. Yeah. No. but I did find the actual 8.5 by 11, like glossy photo. So I'm thinking maybe someone should just Photoshop our faces onto, under Ruff and Ashum. We're slugging each other. I will sign anything, by the way.

With anything. Inscribed with anything. I have no, no scruples when it comes to that. Do little drawings. I don't care. Michael K. Rupp was fun to have on. Love the Yager Stories. And no, Will is not the only one.

You guys have the best American hockey podcast. Oh, and Craig Go Blue. I gotta go. You know what? This was probably, Michael Kay probably wrote this right before they got their shit kicked in the college football playoff. I would say that's probably true. Yeah, I'm looking at the date. Yet another humiliating loss for the University of Michigan and football, Michael.

Sorry, sorry about it. And then he asked for Luke Hughes or Maddie Baneers on the show to have fun with Craig. Luke's the only member of the Hughes family that we haven't spoken. I'm a little gun shy after the Quinn interview. I don't know. I don't think I... Why? What happened with Quinn?

It just wasn't, it didn't have the free-flowing Hughes. This is a complete aside. I was in Potoski, Michigan, and I swore I saw Jack and Ellen Hughes at a downtown Potosky, like, tiny little gift shop. And this is when you know you're, like, you're too immersed in the world. Like, when you start seeing people that you think, you know what I mean? Like, you go to the airport and you're, you know what I mean? You're like, there's Jim Rutherford and there's, and it's like, no, like, not everyone around you is the hockey people you deal with.

Like, there's also people outside. Excuse me. Excuse me. Sir and madam, your baby looks like. Yeah. Everybody is like, looks like Doug Armstrong or whatever. I have, yeah, I seem to project. Maybe it was them.

And if it was, sorry I didn't say hello. I didn't my mask on and hat pulled down. Because I don't want anyone recognizing me in photography. The sunglasses. tosses up if you were at a trench code. That's right. That's how I travel. Michael K.

Oh, there's another one of Michael K. Also, notice the Canadians can't do shows between Christmas and New Year's. It's a fact. That's because they're celebrating Canadian Valentine's Day. That's right. All the other showed up. We do have to give props to Rob Piso on the Wednesday show for showing up. Only Canadian to actually show up for work this week.

Wow. It's because of boxing day. Is Boxing Day celebrated in the U.S.? I think we got kind of a day off for it. Haley and Ian had the 26 off. I don't think the American athletic employees got that day. Oh, another Michael K. And Julian and Haley calling the octopus a squid that Detroit throws had me live it.

That can't be right. Does that like... I think that's on purpose? I would bet that's on purpose. That's part of the subtle shade you can expect. from those two. I'm telling you, they were, they were starting all sorts of shit on the Monday, on the Monday show. You might have to listen one time. Hmm. Yeah. Jonathan C. Tuesday show already trying to take Canadians to play for Team USA with Owen Power. Thank you, Jonathan, for not letting

that mistake slide by because I, because I looked at Owen Power 10 seconds before that and have no filter between my brain and my mouth. That was on the Chris Peters roster projection. She had you guys on the Monday show. That's what John, that's what Jonathan says. Here's what we're, uh-huh. We are, so Canadians are finally getting smart and they're playing college hockey because they value the U.S. educational system.

That's what I'm only the assumption I can make there. And they're getting out of that, you know, the crooked Canadian hockey league system. That's brutal. They're leaving, they're leaving the experience. exploitative Canadian junior hockey system for the, for the altruism, student athlete. That's right. Wonderful experience of the NCAA. So I can see that's, you know, typically if you're playing college hockey, you're an American, I would say generally in our lifetime.

So maybe now this influx of Canadians that are, and we've seen it more often, you know, and maybe that's why you made that mistake. I guess you made the assumption that someone was playing for Michigan. No, I was like, I was just skipping around. I didn't even assume I knew that Owen, I knew that Owen Power wasn't American. I was just like talking out of my ass. And I had moved on to, to Pete, I was starting to talk about Peter's Canadian roster.

And yeah, it was a bad. I don't know what I'm doing. Like that's, that's what this is all, that's what this all comes down to. I'm bad at this. So it was, it was unclear and confusing.

And Mike, sorry, Jonathan C will not let it slide, which I appreciate. Don't ever let anything slide when it comes to any of us making mistakes. Hold us accountable, baby. Mike H writes, and this is our last one. Gentilly, more like Jen Silly. Hell yeah, dude.

Is that what kids called you in elementary school? No. You can probably guess. Gentilly? Oh, yeah. Yep, I could probably take a stab at it. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't, um, cool. No, I, no, I was, I was about to say, I had it pretty easy in school.

I was never, I was never, I was never bullied or anything because I, because I was cool. You were the guy doing the bullying? I don't know what happened. Yeah, you should, you should, you should, you should see in the stuff, the stuff I was doing. Oh, brother. Very mean. Definitely, definitely, definitely not a sensitive little kid at all. No, no, no, no, no, no, not me.

Not you. make sure you listen to Mike Rousseau's podcast. He recaps a great winner classic with Kenny Albert, Darren Pange, Keith Jones, Jamie Hirsch, Mike Rupp. On this week's edition of Straight From the Sorsi. So here we are. We think we're good getting two guests on our show. Rousseau's like, I'm just going to have nine guests on my show. That's this week?

Okay. So I got to listen to that because I got to see how they, is it a panel discussion? Who knows? How did he fit all this stuff in? I'm fascinated to see it. I would also say, if you can make up for the guy that says we talk over each other and give us a one star and says it sounds like drunk's at a bar, again, could have been for any day of the week. Go to your favorite podcast platform and rate this episode. Isn't that what people look for in a podcast?

Like drunks talking over each other? It's like kind of sitting around bullshit and at a bar. I... That's about all. I can do. I hope so. I hope that's what people look for it because that is one of my only, that's one of the only clubs I have in the bag. I can't too much else than that.

If you want extra bonus additions, you can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts. You get all the bonus content from our entire network. Occasionally, Sean and I pipe in with our own bonus episodes. Oh, you know what I want to do, Sean, complete aside. I want to do one of those live rooms on our app where people can just listen to us live. Okay. Yeah, we can. I had that thought.

I don't know why we haven't done one. They're fun. I don't either. I saw a, I saw Nesbit and Rob, Steve Nesbitt and Rob Beer Temple did one, did one last week. Yeah. I'm in. They're fun. Me and Mendez did a, did it kind of a test run when we were working on all that, and it was good.

If you want to listen to that, that was completely organic there. You got to have the athletic app and you can get the athletic subscription for just three. 99 a month when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. No Wednesday show this week. But Thursday show featuring Ian Mendez. I like Ian on Thursdays with Down Goes Brown. Sean's other arch rival. How can we never talk about the Thursday show?

It's the Cold War. Oh, we don't even mention it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Thanks for listening, everybody. Happy New Year. Let's make 2022 the greatest year of all time. Oh, you've got to get to edit anything. You look like you want to say something.

I thought that was just a funny way to end it. Like, yeah, and that is a personal guarantee from Craig Gussens. I guarantee. Oh, yes. I guarantee it. If 2022 sucks, he will give you your money back.